Lectio Divina Guides by Bill Gaultiere
Lectio Divina Process
Hearing God’s voice with confidence takes practice. A great way to listen is through Lectio Divina, a method of Scripture meditation developed by Benedict in the ninth century. These times we read the same passage from God’s Word three or four times, pausing for a few minutes to help us listen to the Spirit. Each reading is guided by a simple question. Invite the Holy Spirit to prepare you and follow the leader’s instructions to know when you can share your response. Be sure to practice personal quiet as you pray!
Introduction to the Text
In Romans 8, one of the especially great chapters of the Bible, Paul is teaching that through our faith in Christ we are given a new life in the Spirit. It’s not a dead life, it’s taken over by a life that’s living and blossoming in the Father’s embrace! Our confidence and joy in Jesus centers into us so that we come to know that we too are loved children of the Father and are empowered by the Spirit to overcome difficulties. If we’re participating in what God is doing around us, we become more confident in God’s plan and love. It’s an adventure! If we’re participating in what God is doing, “What’s next, Papa?” Paul lived out his joyful, overcoming, Spirit-led adventure while in prison and on death row in Rome.
Romans 8
10-11 Welcome this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive and present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus) you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!
12-14 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him! (MSG)
Prayer / Journaling / Soul Talk Prompts
What is one word or phrase the Holy Spirit impresses on you? In silence meditate on that.
What do you feel? What specific situation in your life today relates? Write down a prayer or pray quietly.
What is God’s personal invitation to you from the Scripture? You can write down what the Lord may be saying to you as a prayer of thanks. Or simply rest quietly in the Spirit’s presence.