The author announces a new comprehensive guide to reclaiming biblical meditation — the contemplative practice Scripture commands and the church has largely set aside. The book takes its title and central metaphor from the parable of the ten virgins: all ten carried lamps, but only the wise carried extra oil, prepared for a delay no one could predict.
Storing Up Oil opens by recovering what Scripture actually means by “meditation” — the Hebrew hagah and siach, the Greek meletao — language far more physical, vocal, and sustained than the modern English word suggests. From there it traces the practice’s mystical lineage from the Desert Fathers through St. Teresa of Ávila, St. John of the Cross, and Maria Woodworth-Etter, and grounds it in the body as well as the Spirit: brain states and neuroplasticity, the heart’s own intelligence through cardiac coherence, and the vagus nerve’s role in nervous-system regulation.
The second half of the book turns fully practical — foundational and intermediate practices, advanced encounters, and a full protocol for leading group meditation, with a facilitator’s manual for churches and prayer groups. It closes with an 8-week Bible study guide, a 30-day meditation challenge, and an honest chapter on navigating doubt and the dark nights when none of it feels like it’s working.
Author Timothy Holt leads a devotional worship set at the Pasadena International House of Prayer, chasing the same nearness to God in this book that shapes everything else he makes.
Price: $4.00 (instant PDF download)
At 214 pages, it’s the most comprehensive resource yet in Timothy’s library on contemplative prayer.