Episode #255 Heart Posture: Encountering God in Scripture – Unforced Rhythms of Grace

Hey friends, it's Jen. Have you ever read through a passage of scripture and thought, well, that's nice, but I have no idea what to do with that. Or maybe, you know that scripture is important but it just feels like words on a page. Today, we're talking about what it means to walk through the Bible with God. So not just reading it, but having a conversation with God through it. And so if you've ever felt stuck in your Bible reading, this episode is especially for you.

If you've heard our recent episodes, you know I'm reading through Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline. I'm in a chapter talking about meditation and Richard talked about how those who walked through the pages of the Bible knew the ways of meditation.

And that made me pause because you and I are also those who can walk with God through the pages of the Bible. We don't just have to read about him from afar, wishing we could maybe also meet the author someday. I actually wrote the Captivated Playbook to help people do this exact thing: enjoy and experience the Bible as a shared activity with God. Because we don't have to read the Bible alone, even though that's how I struggled through it for a lot of years. We get to be those who engage with God as we read his word.

And we're talking about this here, still in this context of meditation, because we get to think on God and his promises and his law and his mighty acts and listen for what he would share with us. We get to ponder him and dwell on him and recount his goodness and sit and rejoice as we experience him for ourselves.

But the way that Richard was talking about this in his book was people who literally lived in biblical times. They walked through these pages many, many years ago. And so I'm going to read a few verses for us that talk about that. In Genesis 24:63, it says, “And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening” (Gen. 24:63).

So we have a direct reference to one of God's people going out to meditate and connect with him. And this is Isaac, as in how God introduced himself. He was known as God of the Israelites, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. We also see this with another biblical hero, King David in Psalm 19:14, which is one of the many Psalms penned by David.

He says, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14 ESV)

David, who got to write so many of the Psalms, talks about his words and his heart meditation as offerings to the Lord in light of how God is his Lord, his rock, and his redeemer. He was able to offer his words and his meditation to him. And then we also see a reference to this, using a different word because we're jumping into the New Testament. In Luke 2:19, it's talking about Mary, the mother of Jesus, and it says, "But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart." (Luke 2:19 ESV)

See, meditation isn't just a mental activity. It's a heart posture. It also takes place in the heart.

And as I'm prepping for this episode, I realized that we can look at all of these examples and we can talk about this desire that we have to walk with God, but meditation is so counterculture to our environments. The world is loud. I am a boy mom with two young sons and our schedules are full and our home gets rowdy. And I'm looking at this invitation from God to meditate and it feels so opposite even from my own work habits to have carved out time simply for listening.

Well, we're practicing that in part here with the Good God Talks podcast. As we end each episode with a question and we listen for what God would share with us. But before and during and beyond that, the greater need that we all have is for God to actually give us a desire to meditate. We need him to give us this longing to slow down and connect with him in this way. And there's a grace for it.

In Celebration of Discipline, Richard says, "How do we receive the desire to hear his voice? This desire is a gift of grace. Anyone who imagines he can simply begin meditating without praying for the desire and the grace to do so, will soon give up. But the desire to meditate, and the grace to begin meditating, should be taken as an implicit promise of further graces.” Seeking and receiving that “gift of grace” is the only thing that will keep us moving forward on the inward journey. And as Albert the Great says, “The contemplation of the saints is fired by the love of the one contemplated: that is, God.” (Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline)

Grace isn't just saving grace, it continues. And so as we close out this episode, talk with God more about this and ask him for more grace, not only to hear him, but through grace, to give you more of a desire to hear his voice, too.

God, I need grace to want to meditate. And grace to meditate. Please tell me about the grace you offer me.

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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