Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life with Pastor Dave Cover

This is Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life – a time for you to relax your body, refocus your mind, and to re-imagine and re-narrate your life to a truer reality. I’m Dave Cover. I want to help you with Christian meditation where you can break through all the distractions and experience God’s presence through biblically guided imagination. 

If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.

Acts 17:25 NIV

“...He himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”

Zephaniah 3:17 ESV

“The LORD your God is in your midst (NIV: “is with you”), a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing (NIV: “will rejoice over you with singing”).”

Because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, all these verbs are not only in the future but are now in the present tense. So envision/imagine this with your biblically guided imagination. God, the Creator, is with you right now. He has saved you. He’s rejoicing over you with gladness right now. He wants to quiet your anxiety and fear by his love. He’s rejoicing over you with singing.

Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.

Follow Dave Cover on X (Twitter) @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on X @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Matthew Matlack.

This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.

This is Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life – a time for you to relax your body, refocus your mind, and to re-imagine and re-narrate your life to a truer reality. I’m Dave Cover. I want to help you with Christian meditation where you can break through all the distractions and experience God’s presence through biblically guided imagination. 

If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.

Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.”

Romans 8:30 NIV

“And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”

Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.

Follow Dave Cover on X (Twitter) @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on X @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Matthew Matlack.

This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located. 

This is Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life – a time for you to relax your body, refocus your mind, and to re-imagine and re-narrate your life to a truer reality. I’m Dave Cover. I want to help you with Christian meditation where you can break through all the distractions and experience God’s presence through biblically guided imagination. 

If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.

Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV

16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.

Follow Dave Cover on X (Twitter) @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on X @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Matthew Matlack.

This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.

This is Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life – a time for you to relax your body, refocus your mind, and to re-imagine and re-narrate your life to a truer reality. I’m Dave Cover. I want to help you with Christian meditation where you can break through all the distractions and experience God’s presence through biblically guided imagination. 

If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.

Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV

16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.

Follow Dave Cover on X (Twitter) @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on X @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Matthew Matlack.

This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.

This is Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life – a time for you to relax your body, refocus your mind, and to re-imagine and re-narrate your life to a truer reality. I’m Dave Cover. I want to help you with Christian meditation where you can break through all the distractions and experience God’s presence through biblically guided imagination. 

If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.

Ephesians 3:16-17 NIV

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”

1 Corinthians 6:19 ESV

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?”

Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.

Follow Dave Cover on X (Twitter) @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on X @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Matthew Matlack.

This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located. 

This is Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life – a time for you to relax your body, refocus your mind, and to re-imagine and re-narrate your life to a truer reality. I’m Dave Cover. I want to help you with Christian meditation where you can break through all the distractions and experience God’s presence through biblically guided imagination. 

If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.

Psalm 145:10 ESV

“All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you!”

Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.

Follow Dave Cover on X (Twitter) @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on X @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Matthew Matlack.

This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located. 

This is Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life – a time for you to relax your body, refocus your mind, and to re-imagine and re-narrate your life to a truer reality. I’m Dave Cover. I want to help you with Christian meditation where you can break through all the distractions and experience God’s presence through biblically guided imagination. 

If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.

Matthew 5:14-16 CSB

14 “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.

Follow Dave Cover on X (Twitter) @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on X @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Matthew Matlack.

This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located. 

This is Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life – a time for you to relax your body, refocus your mind, and to re-imagine and re-narrate your life to a truer reality. I’m Dave Cover. I want to help you with Christian meditation where you can break through all the distractions and experience God’s presence through biblically guided imagination. 

If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.

Psalm 145:5-8 ESV

5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.

6 They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.

7 They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

8 The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.

Follow Dave Cover on X (Twitter) @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on X @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Matthew Matlack.

This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located. 

This is Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life – a time for you to relax your body, refocus your mind, and to re-imagine and re-narrate your life to a truer reality. I’m Dave Cover. I want to help you with Christian meditation where you can break through all the distractions and experience God’s presence through biblically guided imagination. 

If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.

Psalm 145:5-8 ESV

5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.

6 They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.

7 They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

8 The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.

Follow Dave Cover on X (Twitter) @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on X @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Matthew Matlack.

This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located. 

This is Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life – a time for you to relax your body, refocus your mind, and to re-imagine and re-narrate your life to a truer reality. I’m Dave Cover. I want to help you with Christian meditation where you can break through all the distractions and experience God’s presence through biblically guided imagination. 

If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.

This is our last episode of 2024 as we take a break for the holidays. 

Psalms 63:6 (ESV) King David writes…

“…I remember you upon my bed,

and meditate on you ...”

Hebrew: “Mindful of”  

Hebrew: “Imagine”

So what this is telling us is that “mindfulness” and “meditation” are ancient biblical disciplines that God’s people have been practicing for thousands of years.

Being mindful of God doesn’t mean trying to picture God. It means using your biblically guided imagination to envision what the Bible tells us is true about God. 

And all that that means for you in how you envision/narrate your life and your future. 

Christian meditation puts our imagination and therefore our body back into the truer narrative/story…

Psalms 20:7 (ESV)

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

(“Mindful of”)

Let’s be mindful of God’s name: HE IS— 

Creator

Source of all life 

Sustainer

Eternal

Infinitely present

In Acts 17 the Apostle Paul is talking to pagan philosophers in Athens. So he is using very general language. But everything he says is part of the gospel. That's what he's doing. He's preaching the gospel.

So this is something that we as Christians need to envision as a promise of the gospel, a foundational truth about God and our lives. 

So Paul says in Acts 17:24-25, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth.” And then in the next verse, he says, “And he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”

Then in verse 28 he says, “In him we live and move and have our being.“

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth. The universe. HE IS.

And he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. God is the one who gives you your life, your very breath right now. HE IS.

In him you live and move and have your very being. He is giving you life right now. HE IS your breath of life right now in this breath. And he gives you everything else in your life. Everything in your life ultimately comes from his hand. HE IS.

And so you have to decide if you're going to trust the God who made everything in heaven and on earth. Everything in this universe comes from him. He created the entire universe of a trillion galaxies. He is all-powerful. And yet he is a God of steadfast love and intimate, infinite focus on you to the very hairs of your head, Jesus says in Matthew 10. So you can trust God with your life, even in stressful times.

Psalms 20:7 (ESV)

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

(“Mindful of”)

Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.

Follow Dave Cover on X (Twitter) @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on X @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Matthew Matlack.

This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.