This is why I tell you not to worry about your life, what you will eat and drink nor about your body what you will wear. For isn't life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds in they sky. They neither sow nor reap nor gather in barns but your father in heaven takes care of them. Aren't you worth much more than them? Which of you by worrying about it can live any longer? And why worry about clothes? Think about the flowers in the fields. They do not work or spin. I tell you even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. If that is how God dresses the grass which is here today and thrown onto the stove tomorrow how much more will he clothe you of little faith!
(Matthew 6.25-30)
1. Read the passage slowly several times. Let the words linger in your mind
2. Home in on the words or phrases that stick in your mind. Repeat them and meditate on them, let them inspire, comfort or challenge you.
3. Pray drawing your prayers from your meditation.
4. Stay in the presence of God for 10-15 minutes. Don't worry if distracting thoughts come into your mind, just return to the presence of God. At the end of this time thank God for his words to you through the Bible and his constant presence with you.
That method of praying the scriptures is based on the lectio divina devised by the Benedictines in the fifth century. It can be used with any passage of scripture. The following are suggestions of passages to be used. But don't be constrained by them.
Acts 9.3-19 Acts 10.9-33 Acts 16.6-10 Acts 20.17-38
1 Kings 17.8-16 1 Kings 19.4-13a 2 Kings 29-12 Psalm 42
1 Corinthians 13 Galatians 5.22-25 Ephesians 3.14-21 Philippians 2.1-11
