40 Days of Spiritual RebootSample

Personal Note

It is my prayer that you are not giving up on this journey. The great thing is you can start at anytime and no one is keeping score. It is completely about you getting this blessing flowing in your life and seeing the benefit of it. It's about getting on top of the things that once got on top of you.

I would love to hear about what your experience was through the fasting week or the prayer week or the word week. I learn a lot when I understand how you learn. I’m asking God to give me wisdom. We all eat the same foods everyday. But how we like it cooked makes all the difference to how much and how often we eat.

Let me work through one passage of scripture today to demonstrate how to meditate on scripture. This is also very close to ‘how to study scripture’ but since it is the ‘word of truth’ we inhale the truth and depth of it. And like a juicy bone the more we chew on it the more juice we are able to get out of it. So get your canines out and let's get stuck in.

HOW TO MEDITATE

1. Interpret correctly - What is the meaning of the text and who is the intended audience?

2. Memorise completely - What is the text saying in concept and where in the scriptures does it occur and why.

3. Meditate consistently - What will help me to bring it to mind over and over through the day until it is a habit.

As you look at this text, ask these aforementioned questions and get personal with God. Repeat it until these broken segments are committed to memory. Then picture the text by asking what it looks like when this happens?

Let's look at this verse - My flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26).

“My flesh and my heart may fail“

What does it look like when my flesh fails? When does my heart fail me? What does that look like? What triggers such a situation? How often does this happen? What‘s the damage?

“but God“

The alternative source to myself is God. Is that possible? How has God made that possible? What does that look like? What needs to change for me to switch from me to him as source?

“is the strength“

He doesn’t give strength, he is my strength. So what does this mean? (Exhale prayer for revelation). What must change in the way things are? (Exhale prayer of surrender.)

“of my heart“

So here comes the parallel. My heart may fail… but God is the strength of my heart. What does this mean? Is heart my will or my emotions? Well, its my emotions… it means whatever I’m not strong enough to ‘will’ into being, God gives my heart that. He gives my heart strength to desire what I normally don’t have the courage to desire. So a heart needs strength you say? Interesting! So my heart makes wrong choices not because it doesn’t know but because it is too weak to want the right thing badly enough. And God gives me that strength? (Exhale prayer for strength.) Identify an area of your life you have been consistently weak to make a decision to do the right thing.

“and my portion“

If He started with heart and flesh… and paralleled it with God being the strength of my heart, then God is my portion probably relates to the flesh. But this time he doesn’t say strength. The heart seems to need strength. But the flesh seems to need value and significance. So God personally becomes our portion, our inheritance, our estate, our wealth, our resource. I'm just thinking here. (Exhale prayer for revelation)

“forever“

Is this limited? Does it run out? What‘s the guarantee? Does it outlive the other resources and support the world offers me? (Exhale prayer for wisdom to choose and make a decision)

I think you get the hang of it now. This is very basic and elementary. I’m sure there is a spiritual giant reading this and saying… there is so much more to meditation. Well… close this and go do it big brother. See you at the party. The rest of us are just getting started.

Pick one or two below and try the same thing with these beautiful nuggets from scripture. Enjoy!!!

“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God” (Psalm 42:5).

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:18-19).

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

OPEN YOUR BIBLE

Psalm 119:22-24 (ESV) “Take away from me scorn and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies. Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes. Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counsellors.“

COME CLEAN

What is one thing you think God needs to be told even though he already knows it?