bythemethod.com blog

Within the Christian faith there are no set ways of praying. Jesus never gave us a specific formula to use or a structure to stick to. Even when Jesus taught his disciples the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11) he was only giving them something to say when they pray and it was never intended to be the last word on prayer. This means that Christians have great freedom in the way they meditate or pray. In effect we can do what we like as long as we do it in the right frame of mind and heart.

However not everyone appreciates this amount of freedom (where do you start with prayer if there is no guidance?) and they have looked to others who pray for some tips on how to do it. This has resulted in various structures and liturgies that have become available to Christians to help them pray and meditate. Such structures only exist as an aid and are not meant to be the only way to do it.

Today I want to talk about meditation in particular. Now meditation is for many Christians a bad word, they see it as something associated with other religions that should have no part in the Christian religion. I disagree with this. When I read the Bible I find references to meditation time and again. We might just as well rule out any expression of faith that predates Christ or is found in another faith. What about music? Or what about art? Or what about preaching? Or even what about scriptures? These all predate Christianity so does this give us a reason to reject them?

Now of course Jesus did give us guidance on prayer; for instance he told us that there is no point in keep repeating the same thing over and over in the hopes that somehow this will make the prayer more effective; he also said we should prayer with the right attitude. However, he made a particular point of not laying down a structure for our prayers – this was to give us freedom, not to stop us from expressing ourselves.

For Christians meditation has traditionally taken two forms. The first form is where a phrase is repeated over and over again – this is particularly so in the Eastern Christian religion (look up the Jesus prayer on Google for more information). The other form is to slowly read a passage of scripture to help get the meaning out of the words.

The repetition of a phrase (e.g. Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me or similar – often a line from the Psalms works well or why not try a worship song or hymn) helps to cleans the mind and soul. As the phrase is repeated it enables your focus to move from the world to God. The repetition is not to make the prayer more effective it is simply a way of getting your thoughts under control to enable God to speak. This can also be done just by opening your mind to God and stopping yourself thinking about other things. It takes a fair bit of practice and requires you to commit to doing it but after a while it can help you get closer to God. If you do want to try this then you will find that your mind still finds loads of things to think about – let it do that thinking at first – just let the thoughts come and then gently put your mind back to opening yourself up to God.

The reading of a passage from the Bible is a different kind of meditation and involves asking God to open that passage up to you and then as you read listening for God to speak.

Which ever form you take though be very careful because its easy to let your own thoughts sound like they are Gods. Anything that comes to mind you need to test against the rest of the Bible. God is always consistent with what he has said in the past so don’t ever assume that God is allowing you to do something because you heard him say it in your meditations when you know God prohibits it in other places in the Bible. For instance if you felt God was telling you to get revenge on an enemy because of what you read in the Bible or because it felt right when you meditated then you would be mistaken (try reading Matthew 5).

So Christian prayer and meditation is about freedom. Like any freedom it needs to be exercised wisely. There are ways of thinking and doing that God does not like and we would be wise to be aware of them. However apart from getting our thinking right there are no structures to limit us. Find your own ways to pray and your soul will be grateful.

Why not leave a comment telling others how you prayer?