Meditation: My favourite way with Bible passages (stories)
OK … On the eve of our departure for the next round of follow-up treatment, let me pass on to you the last in our series: the promised ‘favourite way of mine for meditating’.
As a Bible storyteller and a trainer of Bible storytellers, I am usually learning a ‘new’ Bible story or working on one for future ministry use or presentation.
The fact that it is a story means we are talking about several verses, therefore a passage.
My steps for meditation on a story are these. And those of you familiar with STS (Simply the Story) will know this process well. My question to you would be, “Have you used your STS skills for Bible meditation?” If you haven’t, then try this:
I learn the Bible story. In STS we do this by reading it out loud all the way through (or listening to it read while our eyes are shut, ‘seeing’ the story in our minds as it unfolds). Then we shut the Bible and try and repeat the story out loud, with our eyes shut, using actions to help us recall it better. Then we repeat the process. We don’t peek while trying to recall the story with our eyes shut; we just speak out what we remember. Using this method you can learn a ten-verse Bible story in ten minutes!
You then use questions to dig into the story. What questions? Well, in STS we have a story that helps us recall the questions - and you can sign up for an STS workshop if you want to learn more about that! - but for now I will write them out briefly for you.
Firstly, you need to consider spiritual context - what happened before the story. Look at the passages or chapters before your story to see what you can learn about the characters in your story from what happened to them before, what God was doing with them, and how they responded to God or not
Secondly, you take a step back and ask yourself, what in one sentence is going on here in this story? What is the situation here? What stands out most for me or touches me in this story?
Thirdly, you break your story into sections. This can be natural breaks in the story or ‘scene changes’ that occur to you. No hard and fast rule on where to break the story, but keep the section short.
[Next, when you have your section, you can actually do the rest, and main part, of this meditation while lying down getting ready to sleep. You ask a series of questions in each section of your story. All the questions asked (and thought about) in each section before you move on to the next section]
Firstly, you want to ask, “Is anyone saying anything?” in the section. And if so, you want to see what you can learn spiritually about them from that they said. So the first section question is: “What can I learn spiritually about … from what they said?” You are going to go all through the section with this question asking it of anyone who is saying something.
Secondly, in your same section, you ask, “What can I learn spiritually about … from what they did?” Look at each person (including God) and see what you can learn about them from what they are doing.
Third question in your section: “What choices were made, and if a choice was made what other choices could have been made? And, what can I discover about this person spiritually from the choices they did make? When we look at other choices that could have been made, and then look back at what choices were actually made, we can discover all sorts of things about a person through what they decided not to do, as well as by what they actually chose.
Fourth question in your section, you ask about each choice made, “What was the result(s) of the choice made and who all was impacted?” Sometimes the impact of choices made can be discovered in later stories in the Bible or even today! Like a certain person who chose to eat some fruit in a Garden a long time ago …!
Last question in your section, you ask, “Where do I see God in this section of the story?” God is always at work in Bible stories, even when He is not mentioned by name, so always take time to think this through (meditate on this) in each section.
The above, may seem quite involved, but as you learn it - perhaps by keeping a little bit of paper by your bed with those section questions written out - you will discover this is one of the most amazing ways to meditate on a Bible story and … you also get it ready for ministry (telling or discussing as a story presentation, or for that next sermon of yours)!
As I said before, this is by far my most favourite way of meditating on a Bible story/passage. And yes, it works for epistles and other non-story passages too (although the learning of an epistle passage may take more work and time!).
I hope you enjoyed the meditation series of posts. From now on, with 7 months (probably) ahead of us in travel on two continents, our posts will now revert to other subjects and what’s going on in our lives.
Remember!! PTMTO ~ Prep & clear your heart before meditating ~ HWLW - Use one of the methods I posted before or the one above to meditate on His Word ‘day and night’ (Psalm 1 and Joshua 1). Tell me about your experiences below in the comments area.
I hope you enjoy some rich times of meditation in the Word of God - meditation as it was designed for us by our Creator!