As we come to this weekly meal, we are to come in order to meditate and pray. And as Matthew Henry put it, meditation is conversing with yourself, and prayer is conversing with God.
Both are necessary, but whenever you converse, whether with yourself or with God, it is necessarily to converse intelligently. In other words, we have a responsibility in these conversations to do more than jabber thoughtlessly, or moan and complain, or accuse. When we converse with our selves, and when we converse with God, particularly around the topic of the broken bread and poured out wine, we should be careful to speak in wisdom. In order to do this, we must hear the echoes of Scripture throughout everything we say.
Only this will protect us when we come to the perilous duty of self-examination. “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup” (1 Cor. 11:28). Because this duty is positively commanded, many have given themselves over to it. But the standards for examination have often been grossly unscriptural, given over to a spirit of condemnation, others have reacted away from this duty, and have assumed that any self-examination at all is some sort of spiritual pathology.
But surely there is an alternative to some Christians tormenting themselves with imaginary sins while other Christians go from angry shouting at family members and participation in the sacrament without a second thought. We should not have to choose between diligent hunting of non-existent sins and a let-sleeping-dogs-lie approach to very glaring sins.
So when you meditate, converse with yourself in all wisdom. Stop listening to yourself, and start talking to yourself. And when you pray, don’t assume that you know what God wants to hear. Pray to Him in accordance with His Word. He wants you here. He invited you. He understands all about it.
So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.
Lewis once said his most productive conversing occurred without words.