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.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 235

Listening is a skill that is essential for success in life and for your relationship with anyone including God. I have heard the complaints at my job about various people’s lack of listening skills.  This complaining stems from not feeling validated or recognized because you aren’t being listened to. Anger comes into play especially if this non-listening is on-going. I dealt with my own angry feelings about the email issue I am having a work that has been very disruptive, taking time away from my productivity and basically driving nuts. I finally thought I need to address this issue with the right people so I put together an email and sent it off. Before the end of the day, I was told it was to be worked on and the next day found it to be true that it is being worked on. It feels good to have been listened to. In reading from chapter 13 in Acts, Paul describes how the rulers and the people didn’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah even though they heard the readings from the prophets every Sabbath. They probably knew the prophets and their prophecies forward and backward in their heads but somewhere along the line those words from the prophets never got into their hearts. You really have to use your heart to truly be listening to what God has to say to you. You can read the bible day in and day out but if your heart isn’t hearing it, it goes nowhere, no growth is happening and no fruit is blossoming. I know that I am guilty of this. Everyone can have bad days when your heart just isn’t into it. Maybe you aren’t feeling well or you are preoccupied with some life issue or task that needs to be done. We have to ask God to forgive us and pray for the Holy Spirit to help us hear with our hearts. Lord, forgive me for my lack of focus, my distracted way of being with you in your Word that does not bring forth the fruit you would like to see with. Help me to find the time and place that will be the best to have that focus and give myself to you completely. With you all things are possible. Amen.

Acts:13:27 The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath.