An Aid to Biblical Meditation (I can't make apps, but I have made you a little something)
Okay, so I should really post this later, after I've had time to post a few things about meditation (which I fully intend to do over the next few weeks), but, for purely pragmatic reasons, I'm posting this first. (So if you're completely confused by the concept of meditation, then come back soon and I shall explain!)
We live in a world where everyone does everything on their phones and our phones are very often the only thing we take everywhere with us. And while phones and meditation generally don’t go very well together, at least with the invention of aeroplane mode and ‘do not disturb’ we can manage to limit some of the distractions and enable a smartphone to be a bit of help.
This PDF contains 8 sets of subjects for meditation, as a help either for people who’d like to meditate on God’s Word, but aren’t really sure where to start, or for people who want to redeem the time a bit in some of those spare moments sitting around waiting that would just end up getting wasted flicking through something on your phone.
Just make sure you turn on aeroplane mode or do not disturb – because you can’t really meditate if you have text messages and alerts going off every few seconds!
Of course, you don’t have to use it on a phone – it’s a PDF, so it’ll work on your computer or iPad as well – but I’ve set it up based on the proportions of my phone’s screen (so it might not quite fill the screen on newer phones, but will still work fine).
These aren’t written out meditations, but rather prompts to help you mediate on the Word of God. Some are very simple, and just have a word or a few words on the screen to point you to a Scriptural theme, so use those to point your mind to what you know the Scriptures say on the topic. Others have Scripture verses and sometimes some more prompting on the screen.
The table of contents is hyperlinked to let you easily find the meditation you want.
Now for a brief note about each of the 8 meditations:
1) On the Wordless Book
This is just four solid colours to remind you of four things on which to meditate:
- Black – Sin
- Red – the Blood of Jesus
- White – Forgiveness of sin and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness
- Gold – Heaven
2) On the Suffering of Christ
Five words to remind you of five stages of Christ’s suffering from the Garden of Gethsemane to the Garden Tomb.
3) On the Exaltation of Christ
Again, just a few words to point you to Christ’s exaltation from His resurrection to His return.
4) On the Four Last Things
This might be something we don’t think or talk about as much as the work of Christ, so I’ve included a few aspects of each of the Four Last Things to think on, as well as accompanying Scripture verses.
5) On the Lamb of God
Meditate on Christ’s atoning sacrifice for you on the cross. Various aspects of His atoning work are included, along with an accompanying Scripture, but there are plenty more Scriptures on which to meditate for each of these aspects of Christ’s atoning death.
6) On the Days of Creation
The idea of this one is not to go through the whole thing at once, but to choose the appropriate day of the week. You’ll see that the Scriptures chosen for each day not only relate to that day’s work of creation, but also to other Scriptural truths which the things created that day point us to. For days 3 (Tuesday) and 6 (Friday), there are two different sets of meditations.
7) On the Baptiser in the Holy Spirit
Although Pentecostals often speak of the importance of meditating on the Scriptures, they haven’t written too much about it. So I wanted to include some prompts to meditation on a Pentecostal theme. So here you’ll find appropriate Scriptures on which to meditate to consider various aspects of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
8) On the Pentecostal Fourfold Message
Another very simple one – just four titles of Christ on which to meditate.
Anyway, this little help comes with the above few notes and caveats. And it doesn't exhaust in any way the things on which to meditate. (It's not supposed to - it's only a little introduction to help people out along the way.) Do let me know if it's helpful (or a hindrance), or if you have any feedback on how it could be more helpful.
I'll get to writing about what Biblical meditation is and why it's so important next week (and then hopefully this will all make sense!).