Meditation Enlightens

I tried out the form of meditation outlined in the study guide for the book Celebration of Discipline by Richard J Foster. The basic premise of this biblical meditation is to focus on a piece of scripture and go through it imagining it happening. As you do this, you want to try to focus on adding the attention to detail by focusing on all the senses, sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch. I did this for the story of Jesus feeding the 5000. Thoughts and questions just started coming and I rolled with it. The Holy Spirit showed me how it is impossible for humans to have faith on their own power. Despite all the miracles the disciplines had already seen by the time of the feeing of the 5000, they did not really believe completely that Jesus was the son of God. I have always thought “how could they not believe?” but now am clear on why they could not. They were blocked by their own expectations of who they thought the Messiah should be. They wanted Jesus to be the kind of Messiah that was going to liberate them from the authority of the Roman Empire. They could not understand the truth that Jesus didn’t come to save our bodies and our lives on Earth but came to save our souls and give us eternal life in Paradise. The disciple’s minds were filled up with the darkness of their own misconstrued expectations. But the gift of the Holy Spirit to them changed that. That is what the Holy Spirit does. He clears up our understanding of God’s Word so we can better live out our lives in service to our Lord which will in turn help plant more seeds so that more of God’s children can be reconciled back to Him. What about my expectations? Do they align with your will Lord? If I have expectations that are blocking me from a clear understanding of your Word and will, please shine your light on them so they can be shaped into your truth. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. 

Try out your own meditation time with God’s word and let me know what the Holy Spirit shows you.