Many people today feel a great hunger for a deeper experience of God through prayer. We are no longer satisfied with merely "saying prayers"; we want to enter a more personal relationship with God himself. This desire is a rare blessing in itself, for only God can plant such a hunger within us.

A dimension of prayer which many Christians use as a step toward satisfying this hunger is the use of Scripture as a starting point for reflection and meditation. For as we listen prayerfully to God's word, we become more and more experientially aware of his loving, abiding presence. Often, however,...