The content of meditation: New Testament.
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1 Tim. 4:15: instruction. What Paul refers to is in 4:1-14. So, Timothy is called to consider Paul’s
instruction to him as a young pastor.
·
Phil. 4:8: good things. These “good things” are defined by the 8
terms.
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Heb. 12:2-3: Christ, His passion. Consider in v3 is the call to
meditation. We are to make this the
focus to keep us from becoming discouraged in our souls. This is right in line with what we saw in the
previous post, where the Psalmists remembered the Biblical record of God’s
works and then made that their communion and obsession.
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Col. 3:1-2: Christ, heavenly things.
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Rom. 8:5: the things of the Spirit. Specifically, Paul seems to have in mind the “things”
of 8:1-4 (what God did through Christ; it refers to His incarnation to deliver
us from “the law of sin and death”).
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2 Cor. 3:18: the glory of the Lord.
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2 Cor. 4:16-18: eternal things. In both these 2 Corinthians passages, the
Apostle is speaking of the new covenant ministry and what believers have in and
through Christ.
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Other New Testament thoughts:
·
Matt. 6:5-6: the “closet”. Even if we are out in public or not in some
physical closet, what is needed is to have time alone with God, tuning out the
noise of the world around us and communing alone with God. The following passages give you some of Jesus’
“closets.”
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Matt. 14:23; 15:29: Jesus retired to hills.
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Mark 1:35: Jesus was meditating in the early
morning hours.
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Mark 6:31; 7:24: a quiet place. In both these situations Jesus did not get
the “quiet” He was hoping for as the crowds managed to find Him. It tells us that getting “quiet time” was as
hard in Jesus’ day as in ours.
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Luke 6:12: all night.
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Luke 22:41: Gethsemane. You can see in this story the need for time
alone. Jesus even set up His disciples
where the “three” could have some time to “watch and pray.” In the quiet, they fell asleep. But He had gone a little further to be by
Himself.
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