Meditation

"As digestion is the turning of the raw food into chyle and blood, and spirits and flesh, so mediation, rightly managed, turneth the truths received and remembered, into warm affection, raised resolution, and holy and upright conversation. Therefore, what good those men are like to get by sermons or providences, who are unacquainted with, and unaccustomed to, this work of meditation, you may easily judge. And why so much preaching is lost among us, and professors can run from sermon to sermon, and are never weary of hearing or reading, and yet have such languished, starved souls, I know no truer or greater cause than their ignorance and unconscionable neglect of mediation. " ~ Richard Baxter, The Saints' Everlasting Rest


One of the pastors at WEPC shared this passage at a teaching fellowship this Sunday morning, and I immediately thought, "That is me." In this season while I am living in Richmond, I have been taking in a lot of truths from sermons, conversations with friends, teaching fellowships, books, and Bible studies. I have not however been making time to meditate on those truths.

I think I have been trying to take in as much as possible while I am at WEPC before I head back to Sudan, and as a consequence, I haven't really processed much of what I have heard or read.

This weekend I went for a jog through two adjoining parks in Richmond and took some time to just think. After I got back to the car, I got out my camera and took some pictures of the beautiful spring leaves and flowers. (The top picture I took in CT a few last week)


Taking in the beauty of the morning, meditating on creation itself, and allowing myself to think with out any end or result in mind helped me to really experience of God's holiness and His great love for me that He would pursue relationship with me.

I realized after hearing that quote from Richard Baxter that I have not profited as much from most of the sermons, Bible studies, books, and conversations that I took in this month without any further mediation or consideration, as I got from two hours of thinking and meditating on creation that morning.


Please pray that God would bring the things I have heard in the last month back to mind as I take time to meditate on the truths that people have shared with me.