Yesterday I was talking with a friend doing a Bible study on studying the Bible. Someone taking the study commented on how they knew they should do devotions every day but never really knew what that meant. How true it is that we say certain things in Christianity without ever explaining the details of ‘how to’. You should pray, you should worship, you should have devotions, you should study your Bible, you should spend time with God, you should listen to Him… etc.
Believe it or not, many people don’t really understand what these things entail and most of us (once we are saved) never think to ask or think it will be too ‘dumb’ a question to ask. What happens if you don’t know? Well, you could even get involved in some unhealthy practices. For instance, we are told to meditate on God’s Word- five times in Ps. 119 alone. (v.15,23,48,78,148)
meditate:
Heb. hagah- murmur, ponder, imagine, mutter, speak, study, talk
Heb. siach- ponder, complain, converse with self aloud, commune, declare, muse, pray, speak
What does it mean to meditate on the Word? Are we to sit cross legged with our hands upright on our knees chanting ‘Ohm, Ohm’ while we clear our mind of all thoughts? Not according to scripture which clearly indicates pondering on the Word, speaking about it aloud, studying, maybe questioning self, declaring the Word etc. No specific position of posture is indicated and definitely no clearing of our minds- and nothing about repeating the same words over and over again. So, just how does one meditate? Well, that is a subject for another post- this one is just on how we often tell people to do certain things (for their own benefit) but neglect to tell them HOW to do those things.
And truly He gave some to be apostles, and some to be prophets, and some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
And this until we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full-grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; so that we no longer may be infants, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine… Eph. 4:11-14
Remember in Luke 11:1 the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray? It also says “as John also taught his disciples”. See, we forget that in those days teachers took on students (called disciples) whom the teachers taught even the ‘how to-s’. 2Tm. 2:2 indicates the ministers should pass on teaching to the faithful for them to pass on to others. So we are not to leave the ‘should do-s’ out there in space for people to guess at the ‘how to-s’, but we should all be teaching others that which we have learned, as always, based on the Word of God so that we all may continue to grow to maturity. As Paul said:
Not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect,
but I am pressing on… Php. 3:12