Meditative Prayer

The Concept

In addressing Meditative Prayer, Foster focuses primarily on meditation of the scriptures. The aim is that “the Bible ceases to be a quotation dictionary and becomes instead wonderful words of life that lead us to the Word of Life.” It is a way of reading that differs from study/exegesis (which also has its place) by focusing on personal and internal application. 

This classic practice has been known by the church for centuries as Lectio Divina or “divine reading.” Lectio Divina is slowly reading a passage of scripture over and over again while imagining it, tasting it, applying it, and praying it until it becomes internalized.

Imagination is welcome, even invited, to this practice which engages both mind and heart. Inject your senses into the biblical narratives; when you see the setting in your mind's eye, when you imagine the tastes and sounds, then you will find yourself participating in the action rather than merely observing it. You will find that what was written in the past doesn't merely parallel the present, but can intersect it. (Another happy benefit of using the imagination is that it focuses the mind and prevents it from wandering.)

We are not using imagination to unlock historical facts. Your imagination, of course, may not match the actual circumstance or even the intent of the text, but it opens up a gate to your heart where God will show you what he would have you see just this day, just for you.

While Foster recommends practicing Meditative Prayer with the scriptures, he also suggests trying it with other Christian writings, remembering the words of Thomas à Kempis: “Search for truth in holy writings, not eloquence. All holy writing should be read in the same spirit with which it was written.... Do not let the writer's authority or learning influence you, be it little or great, but let the love of pure truth attract you to read.”

The Experience

Each day this week I [almost randomly] chose passages from the prophets, from the psalms, from the gospels, from the epistles, and applied this imaginative approach. I focused on passages only one or two verses long. This is different for me, as I usually read a chapter or more each day, but I found that what I read this week stuck better throughout the day, and I also found that I was connecting the truths I was being shown from day to day.

It took discipline for me, as I am in a pattern of reading to study rather than reading to meditate. Often, I had to refuse impulses to look up the original Hebrew or Greek word, to read too much ahead or behind, to scour the concordance, etc. There is a time for these things, but not in this exercise. Whenever I would get caught up with a curiosity that would only lead me on a chain-reference scavenger hunt, I would acknowledge the curiosity for what it was: a distraction. I might make a quick note to check it out later, but then I would return to seeing the text as “life not lines” and ask God to show me what he wanted to tell my heart directly that day, hoping for a new revelation about his very nature so I can know him more.

For me, the difficulty was treating this like prayer and not a mere exercise. But the reward is so rich, that I hope to incorporate this type of reading – even if only for a few minutes – into every devotional reading/prayer of the scriptures.

As an example of the fullness of this kind of prayer-reading, on Day One, I selected a newly favorite passage of mine:

Though the fig tree does not bud

and there are no grapes on the vines,  

Though the olive crop fails  

and the fields produce no food,

Though there are no sheep in the pen
   and no cattle in the stalls,  

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD.
   I will be joyful in God my Savior. 

The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
   He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
   He enables me to tread on the heights. 

-Hab. 3:17-19

Before, I had read this and appreciated the sentiment of rejoicing even in times of trouble. I had enjoyed the poetic language and even applied it in prayer. But after this day, it really became alive for me.

As I really took stock in what it would mean for the fig tree not to bud, and the cattle stalls to stand empty, I realized how heart-breakingly frustrating, soul-crushing, even scary, it would be to have put so much work into a job and have it yield nothing, to the point that you might not know where your next bite to eat would come from. Planting fields, building pens: these jobs required my efforts, but their yield depends solely on the blessings of God. Progressing through the short text, I then allowed myself to really think what it is to be joyful in God, to rejoice in the Lord. I felt myself lifted up from the disappointment of fruitless work and concentrated on the eternal truths of a mighty God who loves us and has saved us from darkness. He makes my feet like a deer so I may go to the heights and be with him – this is the work he has done for me, and again I can rejoice because his work will not be fruitless. Amen!