Fletcher Hardison is a guest blogger again today. Thanks, Fletcher.

“Before I know what to say to God, it is imperative to know what God is saying to me.”
– Father Patrick Reardon

Father Pat goes on to say that prayer is a conversation and Scripture is God’s speaking to us. Scripture provides both the objective truths of Christian faith and practice, but it is also a means by which God applies these truths to our lives and speaks to us in a personal way.

Ways of lifting up our hearts

The Church history shows us many different ways to lift up our hearts to God through praying Scripture and meditating on it. Here are three methods that come from different traditions within the Church. They appeal to different personality types – My favorite is probably the second one.

There are two principles that under-gird these methods and need to be kept in mind for the methods to be fruitful:

1. God is speaking to us; our job is to learn to hear Him.
2. God will not say anything to us that contradicts Scripture.

Lectio Divina

Lectio Divina simply means ‘Divine Reading’. It is a method of reading, meditating on Scripture, and responding to God in prayer. It is usually broken into four stages:

• Reading: Read the text and pay attention to what words or phrases draw your attention. You might re-read these a few times.
• Meditation: Reflect on the word/phrases that you were drawn to. What do they mean? What do they mean for you today?
• Prayer: Respond to what God has shown you and pray it back to Him.
• Contemplation: This stage can be described as wordless prayer, where we rest in God’s presence.

Putting ourselves into the story

Another way to meditate on Scripture is to imagine what it was like to be there as the story was unfolding. Imagine that you are a bystander or one of the characters in the story.

• How did they feel?
• Who were they?
• What did they see, say, touch, smell, hear?
• Why were they there?
• What would the Lord say to you?

Then you can imagine it again as a different character.

Bringing the story to us

Another method is to read a biblical narrative and imagine it happening today in your home/church/school/work/etc.

• What would it be like if this story happened today?
• How would I feel?
• What would I see/hear/smell/etc?
• What would God say to me/us?

Spend some time imagining this and then respond to God based on the thoughts and ideas that come to you as you imagine the story.

For example, what would it be like if Jesus were preaching in your church and someone ripped a hole in the ceiling and lowered a guy onto the the stage on a stretcher? How would I feel? How would the people around me respond? What would this mean for me today?

Final thoughts

I hope that these methods can be a blessing to you in your prayer life. Scripture not only forms the basis for Christian faith and doctrine, it also gives us the words and images to pray back to God as part of our ongoing prayer dialogue with Him.