You may find it helpful to read the chapter Intro to Scripture Meditation before trying any of the Scripture meditation activities. It can be helpful to meditate and dwell on a single passage for several days or for an entire week. Try setting aside 30 minutes each day for a week to meditate on one...
Category: Let the Thirsty Come
Meditation: Other Possibilities
You may find it helpful to read the chapter Intro to Scripture Meditation before trying any of the Scripture meditation activities. As with all of the meditation activities, beginning and ending the time with prayer and silence is recommended. Remember not to rush. If helpful, end the activity with journaling about your time of meditation...
Walking with the Word
You may find it helpful to read the chapter Intro to Scripture Meditation before trying any of the Scripture meditation activities. This activity works well with passages that you can meditate on one verse at a time — Psalms, Jesus’ teaching, some epistles, etc. It may not be best for story or narrative sections. Choose...
Journaling with the Word
You may find it helpful to read the chapter Intro to Scripture Meditation before trying any of the Scripture meditation activities. For some, reading and writing are very helpful tools for processing on Scripture, expressing prayers, etc. For this meditation time, choose a passage and print or write it on a full piece of paper....
Prayer Collage
Which of the following would be most helpful to you for remembering, processing, and praying over your reflections? For any of the following possibilities, you could cut out words and pictures to make a collage, make a scrapbook page, or use art supplies like markers, colored pencils, paints, etc. Ebenezer “til now the Lord has...
Ideas for Rest
Life-giving rest is a vital part of extended, quality time alone with God. Without it, we often fall into the trap of trying to accomplish a lot, or we may become overly self-focused and introspective. Neither of these are fruitful, because both attitudes result in putting our eyes on ourselves rather than on Jesus. We...
Year-End Reflection and Prayer Retreat
The purpose of this spiritual retreat is to take intentional time to prayerfully reflect over the previous year and commit the coming year to the Lord. The following devotional explores attitudes helpful in reflection, and shares thoughts from 1 Peter 1:3-9 on how to deal with the difficult parts of the past year. Retreat Activities...
Psalm 131
We want to take a few minutes to, as the psalmist, intentionally “calm and quiet our souls.” This can help us turn our hearts toward God and prepare us for time in prayer and time in the Word. O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high;I do not occupy...
Example Retreats
The following are some ideas for how you could structure personal retreat times ranging from 1 hour to a whole day. Try starting small and slowly working your way to longer times alone with God. Don’t consider any of the following examples or templates as rigid — change them and rearrange them so that they...
Key Attitudes
Remember to slow down. Intentionally slow down each thing you do during your time of retreat. This can help you engage more deeply with God and be more in touch with how you are really doing — the thoughts in your mind and emotions of your heart. Let this slower pace impact every aspect of...