So said the disciples when Jesus was about to leave them--and so shall we say, if we know the sweetness of His presence. When Jesus comes and manifests Himself, when He draws out our souls into sweet communion with Himself--then . . .
we enjoy a Heaven on earth,
our hearts glow with gratitude and burn with love,
we are filled with joy, and
dread nothing so much as His leaving us!
Then we cry, "Abide with us!"
Precious Lord Jesus . . .
come and visit my soul,
reveal Your glory,
shed abroad Your love in my heart, and
draw me into the closest, sweetest communion with Yourself!
Do you know what the above author means when he says, "When Jesus comes and manifests Himself, when He draws out our souls into sweet communion with Himself?"
It has been my observation, that the modern reformed church goer flatters himself to be growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, simply because he attends worship service and midweek prayer group and spends regular time reading the bible.
The way we pray reveals a great deal about what we truly believe. Have you heard a prayer like the one in the short closing paragraph above, lately? "Precious Lord Jesus, come and visit my soul" Would you even know what that meant? How does He visit our Soul? What does that even look like, feel like?
I ask you, do we serve a living Christ or not? One would think not when you hear prayers like, "Lord we know the only place we can find you is in the Bible--make us people of the book." Or "Lord be with us" Is He not Omnipresent?
I am not the only one who has sensed this heart breaking epidemic in the modern church. It is a cold, impersonal, academic, detached knowledge of Christ--not a real and personal experience with our Risen Lord. Dr. Joel Beeke observed this long ago. Here is just a snippet of an article outlining the problem. I would strongly recommend reading the entire article.
(excerpt)
One hindrance to growth among Christians today is our failure to cultivate spiritual knowledge. We fail to give enough time to prayer and Bible-reading, and we have abandoned the practice of meditation. How tragic that the very word “meditation,” once regarded as a core discipline of Christianity and “a crucial preparation for and adjunct to the work of prayer,” is now associated with unbiblical “New Age” spirituality. We rightly criticize those who engage in transcendental meditation and other mind-relaxing exercises because these practices are connected with false religions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, and have nothing to do with Scripture. Such forms of meditation focus on emptying the mind to become detached from the world, and to merge with the so-called “Cosmic Mind.” There is no living, personal God to attach to, to listen to, and to be active for. Yet we can learn from such people the importance of quiet reflection and prolonged meditation.
At one time the Christian church was deeply engaged in biblical meditation, which involved detachment from sin, and attachment to God and one’s neighbor. In the Puritan age, numerous ministers preached and wrote on how to meditate. Few studies have been done on Puritan meditation.
In this article, we will look at the Puritan art of meditation, considering the nature, duty, manner, subjects, benefits, obstacles, and self-examination of meditation (see the bibliography at the end of this article). With the Puritans as mentors, perhaps we can recover the biblical practice of meditation for our time.
The Definition, Nature, and Kinds of Meditation
The word “meditate” or “muse” means to “think upon” or “reflect.” David said, “While I was musing the fire burned” (Psalm 39:3). It also means “to murmur, to mutter, to make sound with the mouth.” It implies what we express by one talking to himself.î[1] Such meditation involved reciting aloud to oneself in a low undertone passages of Scripture one had committed to memory.
http://www.grace4u.org/puritan/free_beeke.html
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