The primary requirement is a longing after God.

It is hard to overstate how saturated we are with the mentality of popular science.

Inwardly you may pray, “Lord, I give to you my anger toward John. I release my fear of my dentist appointment this morning. I surrender my anxiety over not having enough money to pay the bills this month. I release my frustration over trying to find a baby-sitter for tonight.” Whatever it is that weighs on your mind or is a concern to you, just say

To understand that the work of prayer involves a learning process saves us from arrogantly dismissing it as false or unreal.

The first is repetition. Repetition regularly channels the mind in a specific direction, thus ingraining habits of thought.

First, in the prayer of guidance it is the great yearning of our hearts to know the will of God.

Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind.

One word of caution, however, must be given at the outset: to know the mechanics does not mean that we are practicing the Disciplines. The Spiritual Disciplines are an inward and spiritual reality, and the inner attitude of the heart is far more crucial than the mechanics for coming into the reality of the spiritual life.

The Bible uses two different Hebrew words (הָגָה and שׂיחַ) to convey the idea of meditation, and together they are used some fifty-eight times.