The Meditative Reader

I have always heard that "meditation" is an important discipline, but I never really practiced it. 'Praying Scripture' made sense, it just seemed less important than studying or delving into the deeper theological structures of a passage. Needless to say, in practicing this 'Scripture Praying' that Guyon was suggesting, I became quite convicted of my neglect for becoming intimate with God's Word. Studying and analyzing Scripture can easily become impersonal. But an attitude of impersonality breeds a hard heart that is arrogant and dependent on its own capabilities. My greatest struggle with reading 'prayerfuly' was not a lack of motivation for doing it; the hardest part was keeping myself from approaching the passage with an academic agenda. Ironically, I gravitated towards Matthew 6 and the Lord's Prayer as my focus passage. Just as I was learning to meditate on and read Scripture with intention and a humbled, prayerful heart, I was praying a passage about prayer unto my Father. Each verse had a new thought. As I would dwell on each thought, I began to realize that I was only dealing with the surface of the verse. How often I do this! Scripture has a depth that only the Living Word of God could boast. How sweet it is to feel the surface with one's hand, but how glorious still to dig and dig but to never find the rock bottom of the Truth of God's infinite wisdom!