David Crowder suggests a new way of reading the scriptures to really get out of them what God puts in them for us in his book Praise Habit. The 4 parts that make up lectio are: Reading, Thinking, Praying and Living.
Obviously we need to READ the scripture to get something out of it. We should read a passage a few times to really understand what it is saying. In other words, don't just fly through it and see if anything jumps off the page. Immerse yourself in it. Really see what's in it. One of the awesome things about the bible is that it comes alive for us, it speaks directly to us as we read it. Why wouldn't we want to immerse ourselves in something that God has for us?
Next, we need to stop and THINK about what we read and try and figure out just what it means to us. One new concept to think about might be thinking about a particular passage for a couple of days and see how your thoughts might change as to what it means to you; how it can apply to different situations you are in.
After these first 2 steps it is suggested we then PRAY about what God is teaching us through the scripture. Not an 'I want' or a 'Please help with this' kind of prayer, but a 2 way prayer where we actually talk to God about what He is teaching us. Most of us don't learn by reading something then going out and doing it. We usually interact with our teacher to get everything out of what we are being taught. Ask God questions about what you are learning, He will show you the answers and explain things to you.
Now that we have done the first 3 steps, we need to go out and LIVE Gods word in front of others. Why would we spend all that time seeing what God wants to do in our life and the changes He might want us to do to make us better from HIS own word, and then not go out and live it. It would be like learning how to make a boring hamburger taste awesome, but the next time we make it, we skip the process to make it tastier and more appreciable because it takes time. Being better through what Gods word says is worth the time.
I hope this has encouraged some of us to see a different way of reading Gods word. I know it has me!
2 comments:
M-Erik came across this process about six years ago and we do it every year on our first morning session at our Winter Retreat. I admit, I was not a fan at first, and when we told our students about it, they were less than thrilled. But would you believe that every year during "testimony" time at the end of retreat, almost every testimony involves God speaking through the Lectio Divina time them. The students have heard God through this process, and i am now a believer in this quiet and contemplative method of devotion.
That's good to hear Bethany. It is always tough to try something new. But usually if we give it time, it pays off.
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