Piper:
So my answer is that meditation is a biblical reality. "Meditate on the law of the Lord day and night" (Psalm 1). Contemplation, I think, is just another way of talking about spiritually seeing the beauty of Christ in and through the word of God.
In 2 Corinthians 4 you have, "The god of this age has blinded the eyes of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." Well, what's that? That's not with these physical eyes. That's with the eyes referred to in Ephesians 1:17-18 where Paul says, "May the eyes of your heart be enlightened to know what is your calling."
So there is a spiritual seeing, or what we would call contemplation. This is where, when you read your Bible, you pause and you see in and through the words to the reality with your heart, and you apprehend spiritual reality. And this gives rise to a kind of praying that is spiritual and authentic and personal and warm and strong.
So my answer is way "Yes" to the Reformed Puritan tradition of contemplative prayer, as I've just defined it, and of meditation.
I'm very ticked at seminary classes that think you have to mainly go to the mystical Catholic tradition in order to find this kind of depth and
this kind of personal connection with the living God that is both rational and supra-rational and very mystical in its communion.
You don't have to embrace bad theology, namely Roman Catholic historic bad theology, in order to find amazing representatives of those who've known God at this level, contemplated God spiritually in the heart at this level, and have given rise to that kind of contemplation in wonderful praying.
A Piper critic:
http://www.wayoflife.org/index_files/john _pipers_contradictory_position.html#unique-entry-id-1229
John mac arthur;
You spoke this morning about prayer. You clearly spoke against the prosperity “name it and claim it” model, and alluded to some of the mystical elements within that. Can you speak a bit more to the contemplative spirituality and mysticism that is invading the church today?
It’s very dangerous, the spiritual formation. It’s a pagan approach. It’s more like Hinduism than Christianity. It’s content-less, the mantra prayers, it’s a form of Hindu expression. It’s the kind of mysticism that makes people think they can create reality by thinking it, by meditating on it, by focusing on it, claiming it, declaring it to be so.
So how would you respond to the idea that is taught by those who promote spiritual formation and contemplative prayer that “prayer is really a conversation with God”? The idea that we must remain still and quiet, waiting to hear back from Him?
Here’s the problem with that: God can’t answer. He’s spoken only in His Word, so it’s not a conversation.
GTY staff:
Your prayer life has a significant impact on your spiritual growth. Prayer submits your will to the Lord’s, it aligns your desires with His purposes, and it cements His truth in your heart. In the end, it’s much more than simply bringing your requests and concerns before the Lord.
Over the last several weeks here on the GTY blog, we’ve been weighing the biblical and practical merits of some popular methods of stimulating your spiritual growth, commonly referred to as spiritual formation. In particular, we looked at how to get the most from your study of God’s Word by comparing some modern patterns of spiritual formation to time-tested principles of Bible study and interpretation.
But if you’ve heard or read anything from proponents of spiritual formation, you know that prayer figures heavily in their methodology. In fact, it was several questions about a specific method of prayer—contemplative prayer—that prompted this blog series in the first place.
Contemplative prayer isn’t really prayer at all—at least in an active sense. It’s essentially a form of passive meditation. Usually it involves repeating a few words from a verse of Scripture, a spiritual phrase, or a name for God, all the while anticipating some special guidance, insight, or a word from the Lord.
The model for contemplative prayer isn’t found in Scripture. It’s a hybrid of rituals adopted from the Catholic church and Eastern mysticism. And most critical, it lacks a mechanism to differentiate between the voice of the Lord and your own emotions and imagination.
Make no mistake—God has spoken, once and for all, through His Word. You don’t need to sequester yourself in solitude or practice some mystical incantation to receive His truth and grow spiritually. You simply need to submit yourself to His will as revealed in Scripture.
Any pattern for prayer that uses your emotions or imagination as a receptor for God’s revelation is an invitation for theological error and spiritual confusion to take root in your life.
Instead of trying to manufacture some momentary, mystical experience with God, believers must cling to the unchangeable truth of His Word. Rather than searching for subjective personal insight, we need to reinforce our knowledge of Scripture and our dependence on the Lord through a consistent, biblical prayer life.
Tomorrow we’ll look at a key figure in Scripture—a true prayer warrior, whose faithful prayer life should be a model for our own.
For now, we want to hear from you. What prayer methods have you used in the past? Have you been encouraged to try contemplative prayer? What were the results?
GTY Staff
