572 Paul Faces the Same Persecution He Gave, A Guided Christian Meditation on Acts 9:23-25 with the Recenter With Christ app  

The purpose of this podcast is to help you find more peace in your life and connect with the true source of peace, Jesus Christ. 

Outline: Relaxation, Reading, Meditation, Prayer, Contemplation and Visualization.

Get into a place where you can sit comfortably and uninterrupted for about 20 minutes.You should hopefully not be driving or anything tensing or unrelaxing.  If you feel comfortable to do so, I invite you to close your eyes.   Guided Relaxation / Guided Meditation:   Breathe and direct your thoughts to connecting with God. Let your stomach be a balloon inflate,  deflate.

Scripture for Meditation

KJV

23 4 And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him: 24 But their laying await was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him. 25 Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket.

NABRE

23 After a long time had passed, the Jews conspired to kill him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. Now they were keeping watch on the gates day and night so as to kill him, 25 but his disciples took him one night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

Meditation:

This passage is simple but reflects a lot of emotional complexity. Here Saul, who would be called Paul, is experiencing the exact persecution that he had inflicted on others. There is an ironic justice to that yet only when perceived from the way of the world. I wonder what Paul would feel knowing he had recently been on that side. 

Additionally he is serving a God who can speak in great light and booming voice of thunder and he is forced to escape the city by being lowered outside the gates in a basket, like a thief. Why did he not free him as Peter were he just walked right by the guards. We have no idea.

On thing this highlights though, is that we do not get to choose the outcomes of our deeds. Good or bad we do not get to decide what the consequences of our actions are. In some ways we could think that God should reward Paul for sacrificing his ego and his sin to come to Jesus, yet that is reasoning of the world. God deals his justice and mercy on eternal scales. He knows what Paul needed and he was ready to allow him, and the rest of the Church, to suffer for a while in order to carry out His eternal plan.    Meditation of Prayer:

Pray as directed by the Spirit.

Dedicate these moments to the patient waiting, when you feel ready ask God for understanding you desire from Him.

Meditation of God and His Glory / Hesychasm:

I invite you to sit in silence feeling patient for your own faults and trials.

Summarize what insights you have gained during this meditation and meditate and visualize positive change in your life:

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