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Making Master Yoda Proud

We're posting some conversation-stirring quotes every Tues, Thurs, and Saturday. This week’s theme is prayer and meditation.

The following quote is taken from a church newsletter. The newsletter’s focus was prayer. The part quoted here comes from the section entitled, “Prayer Exercise for Members.” Here it is in its entirety:
 
Soren Kierkegaard once observed: "A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he realized that prayer is listening."
 
Begin listening by first focusing on a phrase like "God is good" or "Come Holy Spirit." Choose any word or phrase that will help you concentrate on God. Start your focus of God's presence by getting to a quiet place and saying your phrase. When distractions intrude on you, just refocus by concentrating on your phrase until the intruding thoughts disappear. Try to sit quietly in God's presence for 10 to 20 minutes. If it's too difficult, start with a 5 minute commitment and increase your contemplative time gradually as you are able. 
 
Don't be discouraged by stray thoughts -- our minds need to be retrained to be quiet and able to focus on God and His presence. Just enjoy sitting in the presence of God and soaking up his restorative gifts. This is a great way to regain strength and energy to face the rest of your day or to finish your day and prepare to rest. Don't rush to resume your day or evening, give your soul a few minutes to digest the experience you've had before resuming your day or evening. Enjoy God's presence as often as you are able!

I only have one “conversation-starting” question for us today...

What is wrong with this prayer exercise? 

Comments

For starters, this seems more

For starters, this seems more like emptying your mind than really filling it with godly thoughts. It also runs counter to Matthew 6:7 "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repitition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words." But also, this proposed concept of prayer is dangerous in that it can lead to creating false images of God. In Packer's "Knowing God," he talks about how the 2nd Commandment does not only prohibit making physical false images, but also imagining them in your head. "How often do we hear this sort of thing 'I like to think of God as the Great Architect (or, Mathematician; or, Artist).'...We know from experience how often remarks of this kind serve as a prelude to a denial of something that the Bible tells us about God." It seems that Kierkegaard is also suggesting that extra-biblical revelation is possible if we just listen for it.

When we concentrate on only a particular phrase or mantra about God, we can create a distorted image of God in our minds that leads to worship of a false God. That's not to say that we shouldn't meditate on God's different attributes, but we must do so in a way that doesn't focus on one or two, to the exclusion of others. This is also similar to a Roman Catholic using a crucifix to help focus their prayer, which leads to a distorted image of Christ, and eventually causes the prayer to be directed at the object, and not Christ himself.

I think what the newsletter

I think what the newsletter is offering is an anemic, self-centered, and wussified (and as Jonathan pointed out, idol-prone) version of a very godly type of prayer.

Why godly?

Because keeping our words few before God is something the Bible commands. Take for example Eccl. 5:2: "Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few." or Hab. 2:20 "But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him." Stillness is a Godly response to His character. Like Psalm 46:10 says "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!"

So is repetition, not vain repetition, that mantra-reciting-hippie-stuff, but the exultant emphasis given in the refrain of "Holy, Holy, Holy" or the litany "His steadfast love endures forever".

We should have stillness and mediation in our prayer just not the nonsense of "choosing any word or phrase" and gazing at your navel while sipping your latte or doing your morning yoga.

The problem with this prayer

The problem with this prayer exercise is that it denies a very important truth: The total corruption and sinfulness of man, still present in the life of a Christian.

The above instruction tells you to "listen" to yourself, namely anything that will help you focus on God. This is satanic. The Christian should never be quick to trust the impulses of his heart. It is deceitful above all else (Jer. 17:9). Moreover, the Christian can't even trust his mind to have pure and accurate judgement, concerning knowing God (Rom. 1:21). Instead, he should make every effort to meditate his mind on scripture, which is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb 4:12).

I have had many friends make shipwreck of their faith, because they were taught that the way to hear and obey God was exactly the way listed in this prayer exercise. One girl who I was in a church worship band with, struggled with the truth that sodomy was sin. When my wife emailed her to give her truths of God's Word, scriptures to mediate on, both on the glory of man-woman union and condemnation of sodomy as an abomination, her response to Becky and I was that she didn't "feel the same way in her heart". In other words, she was unwilling to have her thoughts and feelings be subject to the word of God, because those were the very things she had been taught to trust in.
She is now a lesbian.

It's no different than

It's no different than eastern mysticism, regurgitated by Christians. You might as well do Yoga.

Haha... Nice.

Haha... Nice.

I agree with what everyone

I agree with what everyone seems to be saying, that this type of prayer is wrong.

But I also agree with one of the problems the passage is trying to address: that we can seldom focus our thoughts to God for extended periods of time. This is a problem but the solution is not eastern mystic blank mind prayers but rather the solution is extended times of reading God's Word; we learn the necessary discipline of mind and thought needed for prayer by spending significant and long periods of time reading the Bible.

Do not waste your time emptying your mind so that sin may fill it up. Spend your time filling your mind with the words of the Lord so that your mind and thoughts are overflowing with Scripture. If you mind is blank how can you focus on the Lord? If your mind is filled with the Lord it will be easy and natural to focus on Him.

There are many things wrong

There are many things wrong with this prayer exercise.

However, it is my further observation that I do not practice meditation or "consideration" of the scriptures. I don't believe myself to be alone in this failure. It is easy to be about the work of formulating arguments and defenses (work that we should do). Not so easy to be still and reflect on God's revelation, allowing it to work on us.

Ok, I got it - stillness as

Ok, I got it - stillness as opposed to one's mind going blank. Inwardly, I guess I always thought the 'mind going blank" was suspect.

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