Frank Laubach was a missionary to the Philippians in the early 20th Century. While there, he devoted himself to experiencing Christ in every waking minute of the day. He collected what he learned about spending time with God into a booklet called The Game with Minutes. Here are some of his tips for how to study devotionally. They are followed by Martin Luther’s technique for devotionally meditation on some truth that you’ve learned – another way to make study as impactful on the heart as it is on the mind.

This is a challenge for all students, and especially dangerous for theology students – who can mistake spending time with the content of their studies for spending time with the One that content describes. Chemistry students aren’t at much risk of making this mistake, but seminarians are.

When Reading a Book

When we are reading a newspaper or magazine or book, we read it to Christ! We often glance at the empty chair where we visualize Him, or at His picture and continue a running conversation with Him inwardly about the pages we are reading. Kagawa says scientific books are letters from God telling how He runs His universe. Have you ever opened a letter and read it with Jesus, realizing that He smiles with us at the fun, rejoices with us in the successes, and weeps with us at life’s tragedies? If not, you have missed one of life’s sweetest experiences.

When Thinking

If you lean back and think about some problem deeply, how can you remember God? You can do it by forming a new habit. All thought employs silent words and is really conversation with your inner self. Instead of talking to yourself, you will now form the habit of talking to Christ. Many of us who have tried this have found that we think so much better that we never want to try to think without Him again. We are helped if we imagine Him sitting in a chair beside us, talking with us. We say with our tongue what we think Christ might say in reply to our questions. Thus we consult Christ about everything.

No practice we have ever found has held our thinking so uniformly high and wholesome as this making all thought a conversation with God. When evil thoughts of any kind come, we say, “Lord, these thoughts are not fit to discuss with Thee. Think Thy thoughts in my mind.” The result is an instantaneous purification.

When In School

An increasing army of students in school who are winning this game, tell us how they do it. Here is their secret:

  • When in study period, say: “God I have just forty precious minutes. Help my wavering thoughts to concentrate so that I may not waste a moment. Show me what is worth remembering in this first paragraph”—then read the lesson to God, instead of reading it to yourself.
  • When rising to recite before a group, whisper: “Make my mind clear, so that I will be able to recall all I have studied. Take away fear.”
  • When taking an examination, say all during the hour, “Father, keep my mind clear, and help me to remember all that I have learned. How shall we answer this next question?” Visualize Him looking over your shoulder every minute you are writing. God will not tell you what you have never studied but He does sharpen your memory and take away your stage fright when you ask Him. Have you not discovered that when you pray about some forgotten name it often flashes into your memory?
    • To be sure, this prevents us from being dishonest or cheating, for if we are not honest we cannot expect His help. But that is a good reason for playing the game with minutes. Character is a hundred times more valuable than knowledge or high grades.
  • To be popular with the other students, acquire the habit of breathing a momentary prayer for each student you meet, and while you are in conversation with him. Some instinct tells him you are interested in his welfare and he likes you for it.

Luther’s Fourfold Garland

  1. Instruction – Identify some truth from you have studied that has some impact on you personally that you would like to meditate on more.
  2. Thanksgiving – What does this truth make me thankful for?
  3. Confession – What sins of commission or omission does this truth highlight in my life?
  4. Prayer – What petitions and intercessions does this truth prompt?
  5. Application – What does God want me to do with this truth?