Mama Bear Speaks Up: What's Wrong With "Contemplative Prayer"

Mama bears.  Describe their commitment to their cubs’ welfare as extreme devotion, and it would likely still be an understatement.  So when I tell you that the mama bear in me is rising up, this is serious.

And it is no time for silence.

Last week, my children were asked—in a setting we trusted—to participate in a pagan/New Age meditation practice.  Alarm sirens went off in each of our three children’s hearts because we have taught and warned them extensively about this, but what if they hadn’t known how to identify this apostate deception?

Our children were not the only children present, and I fear not all of those present were aware of the trap that was being set for them. Sadly, many of their parents likely do not know how to warn them.

Because it is imperative that we—and our children—know the truth and can discern truth from error, I write today with urgency.  Foremost to this context is an understanding of what Biblical meditation is.   Without a solid understanding of truth, we are incapable of recognizing blatant lies, let alone crafty and subtle error.

The Word ‘meditate’ is used multiple places in Scripture, especially in Psalm 1, 63, 77, 143, and 145.  The meaning of the Hebrew word translated ‘meditate’ in English is very telling.  It means to ponder and think carefully, to consider, to muse, and to remember.  It even includes the idea of an audible conversation with one’s self that involves a mind fully occupied with rational, conscious thoughts. According to Scripture, these rational, conscious thoughts are about definite content, specifically about the Lord Himself—His character, nature, and attributes, His Word, His precepts, His statutes, His wonderful works, His wonders, His law, His majesty, and His testimony.  In the context of Scripture, the goals and outcome of Biblical meditation are also clear, including understanding and insight that result in obedience to God.

In summary, Biblical meditation is practiced with an active mind, fully engaged in rational, conscious thought, carefully considering God’s nature, works, and revealed Word, with the ultimate goal of obedience to God.  This definition of Biblical meditation, by the way, is not some mysterious, confusing, or contested interpretation, but is derived from explicit Scripture verses and a standard Hebrew dictionary.

Unfortunately, what is so clearly specified in Scripture is being ignored by a growing number of people who are promoting pagan forms of meditation within ‘Christian’ contexts.  The pagan meditation goes by various inventive names, including, but not limited to, ‘contemplative prayer’, ‘centering prayer’, ‘breath prayer’, ‘the silence‘, listening to the silence’, 'listening prayer', and ‘being still before God’.    Though bearing new names, they are all essentially whitewashed transcendental meditation as practiced by Buddhists, New Agers, and other self-proclaimed mystics practicing nearly every religion on the planet.

Let me explain.  While there are minor variations, I found essentially the same technique described by thinly veiled Hindu transcendental meditation experts who claim to not be religious at all, by people who claim to be Christian, by Jewish Rabbis, Buddhists, and even Muslims.  Three basic steps of this kind of meditation are essentially the following:  (I will use the supposedly Christian version of the instructions.)

1.      Don’t think about God.  Aim to avoid any particular rational thought.

2.      Choose a ‘sacred word’ to repeat over and over for twenty minutes or so until the word becomes meaningless.       Examples given of words to use include ‘Jesus’ and ‘Abba’.  The alternative to repeating a word is to focus or concentrate on one’s breathing.

3.      When conscious thoughts break in, simply return to the sacred word or to a focus on one’s breathing.

The result of this kind of meditation is sometimes described as a kind of altered state of consciousness (though some deny this aspect and say they simply experience a calm or 'oneness' with God or with the natural world around them), a sort of inward, mystical, emotional high, described by some practitioners as “ecstasy”, that may involve, at times, tingling, bright lights, a feeling of weightlessness, a feeling of energy flowing through one’s body, or voices audible only to the practitioner.

Make no mistake!  This so-called ‘contemplative prayer’, which is actually pagan meditation, is nothing like Biblical prayer or Biblical meditation!  Step one above is clearly contradicted by Jesus’ instruction to His disciples when they asked Him how to pray in Luke 11.  As recorded in Matthew 6, the first words of His example prayer focus specifically on God, “Our Father, who art in heaven. . .”   Step two above is also clearly contradicted by the words of Jesus to “avoid meaningless repetition” in prayer.  (Matthew 6:7)

The contrast could not be more obvious.  This pagan form of meditation, which is being increasingly advanced in ‘Christian’ circles, is not focused on God, while Biblical meditation is entirely focused on God and His Word.  Pagan meditation is void of meaningful content and void of rational thought, while Biblical meditation is content-rich, rational thought.   Pagan meditation emphasizes silence and listening, while Biblical meditation is a more like a conversation that can even be spoken aloud.  Pagan meditation emphasizes union with one’s ‘divine self’, ‘higher self’, 'true self' or the 'unified field' (entirety of all matter), while Biblically informed meditation recognizes a very great difference between our nature and God’s—only He is God.  Pagan meditation’s goal is an altered state of consciousness according to some, and to others it is for 'entering into the ordinary', discovering their 'true selves' as they 'experience the presence' and renounce thoughts, while Biblical meditation leads to fully informed conscious obedience to God.

No matter what you name it, a pagan practice is still a pagan practice all the same, and one does not encounter God using pagan practices.  These insidious practices are neither prayer nor meditation by any Biblical standard.

Deuteronomy 18:9 makes it plain that God’s people are not to imitate the detestable things unbelievers practice.  I Timothy 4:1 warns, “The Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons . . .”  Tellingly, people who advocate pagan meditation, but call it Christian meditation, openly proclaim that their form of meditation can open up common ground among all faiths.  They say it will deepen your faith, no matter what your religion.  Hmmm, now how could that be. . .

Make no mistake—this is war!  We must be armed with a knowledge of the truth and be on guard against lies, so that we—and our children—may, as Jude 3 says, “earnestly contend for the faith”!