Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life with Pastor Dave Cover

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV

Remember — anxiety, anger happens when we think we need something that we actually don’t need. Lots of people don’t think they struggle with anxiety because they have a stereotypical view of what anxiety is. They don’t feel like they really deal with worry. They don’t fret much. But anxiety is much broader than that. And much more stealthy. Often it hides itself in our body in muscle tension. Elevated heart rate. Distracted mind. Anger fantasies.It usually happens when our old self (false self) gets triggered when it’s threatened, and it blocks our awareness of the security of God’s presence and love and lordship over everything in that moment. 

Ephesians 4:22–24 ESV

In other words, anxiety is a sign that the insecure and idolatrous false self is demanding we cater to its “needs” instead of putting it off and dying to it like the Bible says. Most of our anxiety and tension and self protective relational dysfunctions are generated by this false self. The false self overshadows us from perceiving God’s presence and receiving God’s love and finding security in his Lordship in this moment. It keeps us stuck in repeated cycles of worry and insecurity and fear and feeling threatened. Our false self will never bring about true freedom in life.

So as it relates to this passage…Anxiety happens most when we’re fixing our eyes on our outer self and what is ultimately “wasting away,” and “temporary.” “Light and momentary troubles” in comparison to “an eternal weight of glory.” So much of the Christian life and what it means to live by faith is being able to see unseen realities.So we have to meditate using our imagination before we can live in this reality rather than losing heart in times of trouble — being able to fix our eyes on what is unseen and eternal. Being able to feel the weight of the true glory in our lives.

Yes, Paul also means the Genesis 3 realities of our bodies — they are “wasting away” in the thorns and thistles and dust and death of this world before our bodily resurrection and the renewal of all things. But he’s primarily talking about a mindset here. We could say that “outwardly” is the same as “earthly” — thinking with the mind of our old self rather than our new self — looking at life and our circumstances with a mind that ignores the presence and love and lordship of God. Focusing on the outward more than the inward. Priorities that are “wasting away” versus “renewed.” Seeing our troubles as weighty rather than as momentary compared to our eternal weight of glory in the restoration/resurrection. Fixing our eyes on what is just seen on the temporary surface rather than fixing our eyes on the weighty glory of the unseen.So think of your troubles right now. Your anxieties. The things that make you angry. Try to see those things with the mind of your new self instead of your old self.Using your imagination — Fix your eyes — SEE — your troubles as light and temporary inside this promise of God. Your troubles ARE ACHIEVING FOR YOU an eternal weight of glory. See the unseen using your biblically guided imagination. 

Timestamps:02:49 - 18:44 Body Meditation18:57 - 30:06 Bible Meditation: Corinthians 4:16-1830:18 - 33:11

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 Twitter @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Diego Huaman.

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.

The Bible gives us the unique perspective of eternity with which to see every moment in our lives. Including the difficult ones. This kind of Christian meditation brings the transcendent experience of God into your mind and into your body so that you can replace anxiety, insecurity, stress and tension with the better and truer imagination of God’s infinite and intimate presence and love for YOU.

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

Body Meditation

In a minute we’re going to meditate on 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. But before that, let’s get your body in a good physical and spiritual disposition to meditate, so that you can recalibrate and re-integrate your body and mind with God’s infinite presence and intimate love for you right now in this moment.

…

Bible Meditation

Now let’s breathe spiritual life into your body meditation by adding in biblical meditation and imagination.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Greek — “our outer person” vs “our inner” (ESV: “our outer self”)

ESV — “an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”

Remember — anxiety, anger happens when we think we need something that we actually don’t need. 

Lots of people don’t think they struggle with anxiety because they have a stereotypical view of what anxiety is. They don’t feel like they really deal with worry. They don’t fret much. But anxiety is much broader than that. And much more stealthy. Often it hides itself in our body in muscle tension. Elevated heart rate. Distracted mind. Anger fantasies.

It usually happens when our old self (false self) gets triggered when it’s threatened, and it blocks our awareness of the security of God’s presence and love and lordship over everything in that moment. 

Remember…

Ephesians 4:22–24 ESV

…Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and… be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and…put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Instead of recognizing the voice of our old self being threatened and choosing to put it off as a false, old self, we identify with it as the real us and get hijacked by its insecurity and fear and self protective relational dysfunction and anxiety.

In other words, anxiety is a sign that the insecure and idolatrous false self is demanding we cater to its “needs” instead of putting it off and dying to it like the Bible says. Most of our anxiety and tension and self protective relational dysfunctions are generated by this false self. The false self overshadows us from perceiving God’s presence and receiving God’s love and finding security in his Lordship in this moment. It keeps us stuck in repeated cycles of worry and insecurity and fear and feeling threatened. Our false self will never bring about true freedom in life.

So as it relates to this passage…

Anxiety happens most when we’re fixing our eyes on our outer self and what is ultimately “wasting away,” and “temporary.” “Light and momentary troubles” in comparison to “an eternal weight of glory.” 

So much of the Christian life and what it means to live by faith is being able to see unseen realities.

So we have to meditate using our imagination before we can live in this reality rather than losing heart in times of trouble — being able to fix our eyes on what is unseen and eternal. Being able to feel the weight of the true glory in our lives.

Yes, Paul also means the Genesis 3 realities of our bodies — they are “wasting away” in the thorns and thistles and dust and death of this world before our bodily resurrection and the renewal of all things. But he’s primarily talking about a mindset here. 

We could say that “outwardly” is the same as “earthly” — thinking with the mind of our old self rather than our new self — looking at life and our circumstances with a mind that ignores the presence and love and lordship of God. Focusing on the outward more than the inward. Priorities that are “wasting away” versus “renewed.” Seeing our troubles as weighty rather than as momentary compared to our eternal weight of glory in the restoration/resurrection. Fixing our eyes on what is just seen on the temporary surface rather than fixing our eyes on the weighty glory of the unseen.

So think of your troubles right now. Your anxieties. The things that make you angry. Try to see those things with the mind of your new self instead of your old self.

Using your imagination — Fix your eyes — SEE — your troubles as light and temporary inside this promise of God. Your troubles ARE ACHIEVING FOR YOU an eternal weight of glory. See the unseen using your biblically guided imagination. 

Timestamps:

02:49 - 18:44 Body Meditation

18:57 - 30:06 Bible Meditation: Corinthians 4:16-18

30:18 - 33:11 Prayer

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 Twitter @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Diego Huaman.

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.

The Bible gives us powerful imagery for us to use to shape how we see ourselves, including how we see our bodies. This kind of Christian meditation brings the transcendent experience of God into your mind and into your body so that you can replace anxiety, insecurity, stress and tension with the better and truer imagination of God’s infinite and intimate presence and love for YOU.

If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that for this podcast.Body MeditationIn a minute we’re going to meditate on John 13:4-11. But before that, let’s get your body in a good physical and spiritual disposition to meditate, so that you can recalibrate and re-integrate your body and mind with God’s infinite presence and intimate love for you right now in this moment.If you’re able, lie flat on your back, or sit comfortably in a chair. Uncross your legs. And close your eyes, if you can.

And when you’re ready, begin by taking in deep breaths through your nose into your belly — intentionally making your belly rise with each breath intake. And then with each exhale, focus on letting all your muscles soften and let go of tension.Say quietly to yourself, “Relax.”Try to bring your mind’s awareness to feeling your entire body (all at once) feeling heavier — feeling your whole body just releasing and letting go of holding yourself up. This feeling is a sensation that you actually can FEEL. Like when your body feels cold — you feel that sensation inside your body. This is like that, although it’s a quieter sensation. You don’t have to do anything. Just focus your mind’s awareness on noticing and feeling this sensation inside your body of feeling your body letting go and dropping limp. Just focus your mind‘s awareness on feeling the sensation of your body relaxing. Feeling your body from within — feeling relaxed more and more.

John 13:4–11 NIV 

This is a narrative that Jesus intended with a LOT of imagery — imagination. So much of what Jesus did had literal actions/events with larger realities to imagine.

So imagine this — Jesus cleansing ALL of YOU as he went to the cross. Not just your feet but your hands and your head and every part of you! “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me,” Jesus says to you. “And you are clean.” Washing is an imaginative word. So is clean. New self. New creation. Sin completely removed. Washed away. A new self “raised with Christ” (Col 3:1). Even now. Imagine these images — this reality — into your body…Remember…1 Corinthians 6:11 NIV…You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

The authority of Jesus. The Spirit within your body (1 Cor 6:19).

Hebrews 10:19, 22 NIV

Meditate on this imagery. Use your imagination to feel this imagery/reality into your body. You’re renewing how your mind sees your body — YOU.

Timestamps:01:13 - 21:31 Body Meditation21:38 - 30:06 Bible Meditation: John 13:4-1130:20 - 32:22 PrayerWho 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 Twitter @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePodOur audio engineer is Diego Huaman.

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. 

The Bible gives us powerful imagery for us to use to shape how we see ourselves, including how we see our bodies. This kind of Christian meditation brings the transcendent experience of God into your mind and into your body so that you can replace anxiety, insecurity, stress and tension with the better and truer imagination of God’s infinite and intimate presence and love for YOU.

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

Body Meditation

In a minute we’re going to meditate on John 13:4-11. But before that, let’s get your body in a good physical and spiritual disposition to meditate, so that you can recalibrate and re-integrate your body and mind with God’s infinite presence and intimate love for you right now in this moment.

If you’re able, lie flat on your back, or sit comfortably in a chair. Uncross your legs. And close your eyes, if you can.

And when you’re ready, begin by taking in deep breaths through your nose into your belly — intentionally making your belly rise with each breath intake. And then with each exhale, focus on letting all your muscles soften and let go of tension.

Say quietly to yourself, “Relax.”

Try to bring your mind’s awareness to feeling your entire body (all at once) feeling heavier — feeling your whole body just releasing and letting go of holding yourself up. 

This feeling is a sensation that you actually can FEEL. Like when your body feels cold — you feel that sensation inside your body. This is like that, although it’s a quieter sensation. You don’t have to do anything. Just focus your mind’s awareness on noticing and feeling this sensation inside your body of feeling your body letting go and dropping limp. 

Just focus your mind‘s awareness on feeling the sensation of your body relaxing. Feeling your body from within — feeling relaxed more and more.

Let’s take some time to focus your mind on specific parts of your body…

We take time to do this kind of body meditation to re-integrate your body with your mind and then we will meditate on and imagine and feel God’s word into your body to re-integrate your body with spiritual reality. 

…

Bible Meditation

Now let’s breathe spiritual life into your body meditation by adding in biblical meditation and imagination.

While keeping part of your attention always on feeling your body, let me read…

John 13:4–11 NIV

 4 [Jesus] got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”  8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” 9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” 10 Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

This is a narrative that Jesus intended with a LOT of imagery — imagination. So much of what Jesus did had literal actions/events with larger realities to imagine.

So imagine this — Jesus cleansing ALL of YOU as he went to the cross. Not just your feet but your hands and your head and every part of you! “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me,” Jesus says to you. “And you are clean.” 

Washing is an imaginative word. So is clean. New self. New creation. Sin completely removed. Washed away. A new self “raised with Christ” (Col 3:1). Even now. 

Imagine these images — this reality — into your body…

Remember…

1 Corinthians 6:11 NIV

…You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

The authority of Jesus. The Spirit within your body (1 Cor 6:19).

Remember…

Hebrews 10:19, 22 NIV

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, …let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Meditate on this imagery. Use your imagination to feel this imagery/reality into your body. You’re renewing how your mind sees your body — YOU.

Timestamps:

01:13 - 21:31 Body Meditation

21:38 - 30:06 Bible Meditation: John 13:4-11

30:20 - 32:22 Prayer

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 Twitter @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Diego Huaman.

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. 

God’s love is described in the New Testament as something you imaginatively “clothe yourself” with. This kind of Christian meditation brings the transcendent experience of God into your mind and into your body so that you can replace anxiety, insecurity, stress and tension with the better and truer imagination of God’s infinite and intimate presence and love for YOU.

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

Body mindfulness and awareness helps you embrace your body — recalibrate your body — with the reality of God’s life-giving presence and love. 

We will first focus on meditation and your body. Connecting your physical body with your spirit. Then we’ll add a meditation on Colossians 3:13 to re-calibrate your body and spirit with God’s presence and love..

Colossians 3:12

…as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. …14 And over all these virtues put on love…”

Steve Cuss (Managing Leadership Anxiety)

Anxiety is a signal, not a root cause. Anxiety is generated when we think we need something in any particular moment that we don’t actually need. Anxiety is not just worry and fear. It’s how you react when you don’t get something you think you need.

The point is that anxiety becomes a marker that something other than God’s presence and love is at play in my mind and body.

So when anxiety strikes (elevated heart rate, muscle tension, mental distraction, anger fantasies), some questions to consider:

1) What do I feel I need that’s being threatened?

2) Why do I feel that I need it?

3) Do I really need it?

These questions can help you realize where you’re unconsciously attaching to a want as a “need” and consciously release it by remembering that in Christ you already have everything you need. That you can trust God‘s presence and love and care for you that is far greater than your plan for yourself and your “false self” (old self) that drives your anxieties and fears and insecurities and anger and anger fantasies and stress.

Notice what Paul says before this…

Colossians 3:9-10 (NIV)

…Since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator…

Remember Thomas Merton called this old self the “false self.” 

Remember the old self was crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20).

Colossians 3:12

…as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. …14 And over all these virtues put on love…”

Feel this taking off the old self and putting on the new self and “clothing yourself” inside those parts as intensely as you can. 

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 Twitter @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Diego Huaman.

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. 

A Christian Meditation that Your Father Is Lord of Heaven and Earth from Matthew 11:25. This kind of Christian meditation brings the transcendent experience of God into your mind and into your body so that you can replace anxiety, insecurity, stress and tension with the better and truer imagination of God’s infinite and intimate presence and love for YOU.

Acts 17:28 says “In him we live and move and have our being.” 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “…Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you…” which means that Christ has made your body holy. The apostle Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the body…” The way the resurrected Jesus inhabits our body is by the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 11:25 (NIV)

He is Lord of heaven and earth. Someone is in charge of the chaos. Your Father is in charge of all the chaos. He has an eternal plan and purpose. “He will cause all things to work together for good for his children” (Rom 8:28-30). “Not even a sparrow will fall to the ground apart from the will of your father in heaven.” “And you’re much more valuable to God than sparrows.“ “He has numbered the very hairs of your head” (Matt 10:29-31). He has “ordained the number of my days before one of them even came to be” (Ps 139:16).

The God Jesus taught us and the Bible teaches us is a God who is in complete control of everything. This is why Jesus could confidently and calmly take a nap in a boat in the middle of a storm. And then when the disciples woke him up he simply spoke and calmed the storm and the waves.Remember that anxiety and fear and insecurity and anger block us from seeing God’s presence and his love for us in the moment. And they also block us from seeing God in control of every moment.

Evil might be mighty in our world, but it’s not Almighty. Chaos might be mighty right now, but it’s not Almighty. Yahweh — HE IS — is the Almighty. And that’s true for every evil and every chaos in your life right now.

Where there is anxiety, tension, insecurity, self protection, clenched muscles – replace it with trust and a calm confidence in this truth. Your father is Lord of heaven and earth. Use your imagination to see this reality right now. Whatever it is you don’t think is under his control, see it now as completely under his control. Use your imagination to become mindfully aware of this reality right now. God’s presence with you — Christ in you by the Holy Spirit. Whatever and wherever it is you you have let anxiety and insecurity and anger take control, see it now as completely under God’s control. And find rest in that truth. Feel your body become more calm and quiet and at rest as you become more and more mindfully aware of this reality using your imagination.

Timestamps:Body Meditation 01:18 - 18:03Bible Meditation: Mathew 11:25 18:09 - 28:19Prayer 28:25 - 30:12

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 Twitter @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Diego Huaman.

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.

A Christian Meditation that Your Father Is Lord of Heaven and Earth from Matthew 11:25. This kind of Christian meditation brings the transcendent experience of God into your mind and into your body so that you can replace anxiety, insecurity, stress and tension with the better and truer imagination of God’s infinite and intimate presence and love for YOU.

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

Body Meditation

In this Christian meditation we start with a body meditation to recalibrate our body with our mind’s awareness. Of course our body is always responding to our mind and feeling our mind’s beliefs in the moment. Our tension and anxieties, insecurities, anger and grievances. We’re just usually not aware of it. But our body always is.

Body meditation reintegrates our mind’s focused awareness back with our body so that we can intentionally recalibrate our mind and our awareness and our beliefs and our body with the reality of God‘s presence and intimate involvement in our lives.

To begin, lie flat on your back if possible or otherwise sit comfortably in a chair. Try to sit in a way where your mind can easily calibrate with your body. Uncross your legs. Try to keep your body symmetrical. Close your eyes if you can.

And begin to take deep breaths through your nose into your belly.

Breathing in. Feeling calm and relaxed. Breathing out. Letting go of any areas of tension as you feel your body dropping a little deeper now. Releasing. Muscles softening. 

Begin to mindfully inhabit your body fully. To intentionally focus  your attention on the inner condition of your body. To feel your entire body from within. Body awareness helps you embrace your body — recalibrate your body — with the reality of God’s life-giving presence and love. 

And with each breath out use your imagination to feel God‘s presence inside you and outside you. Giving life to every cell in your body. Acts 17:28 says “In him we live and move and have our being.” 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “…Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you…” which means that Christ has made your body holy. 

The apostle Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the body…” The way the resurrected Jesus inhabits our body is by the Holy Spirit. Use your imagination to feel this biblical truth throughout your entire body.

Bible Meditation

Matthew 11:25 (NIV)

At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. …

One of the principles all throughout the Bible is this — God hides himself from the proud and reveals himself to the humble. He’s wired things in such a way where the gospel looks like foolish ignorance to those who pride themselves on their educated intelligence.

But what I am interested in here for our meditation his who Jesus declares the Father to be — “Lord of heaven and earth.“ Jesus is God who became human and he’s praying to God as a human. I want to have the same view of God that Jesus had. Not just that he is my Father.

He is Lord of heaven and earth. Someone is in charge of the chaos. Your Father is in charge of all the chaos. He has an eternal plan and purpose. “He will cause all things to work together for good for his children” (Rom 8:28-30). “Not even a sparrow will fall to the ground apart from the will of your father in heaven.” “And you’re much more valuable to God than sparrows.“ “He has numbered the very hairs of your head” (Matt 10:29-31). He has “ordained the number of my days before one of them even came to be” (Ps 139:16).

The God Jesus taught us and the Bible teaches us is a God who is in complete control of everything. This is why Jesus could confidently and calmly take a nap in a boat in the middle of a storm. And then when the disciples woke him up he simply spoke and calmed the storm and the waves.

Remember that anxiety and fear and insecurity and anger block us from seeing God’s presence and his love for us in the moment. And they also block us from seeing God in control of every moment.

Christian meditation reminds us to believe what we already believe is true. To believe in the God that Jesus revealed to us. And I want to have the same view of the the Bible that Jesus had.

Evil might be mighty in our world, but it’s not Almighty. Chaos might be mighty right now, but it’s not Almighty. Yahweh — HE IS — is the Almighty. And that’s true for every evil and every chaos in your life right now.

As you focus your meditation on becoming more aware of your body, also become more aware of this reality and feel it into your body.

Where there is anxiety, tension, insecurity, self protection, clenched muscles – replace it with trust and a calm confidence in this truth. Your father is Lord of heaven and earth. Use your imagination to see this reality right now. Whatever it is you don’t think is under his control, see it now as completely under his control. 

Use your imagination to become mindfully aware of this reality right now. God’s presence with you — Christ in you by the Holy Spirit. Whatever and wherever it is you you have let anxiety and insecurity and anger take control, see it now as completely under God’s control. And find rest in that truth. Feel your body become more calm and quiet and at rest as you become more and more mindfully aware of this reality using your imagination.

Timestamps:

Body Meditation 01:18 - 18:03

Bible Meditation: Mathew 11:25 18:09 - 28:19

Prayer 28:25 - 30:12

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 Twitter @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Diego Huaman.

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.

Like so much of the Bible, Ephesians 4:22-24 is highly imaginative language. And it’s primarily giving you an image to imagine regarding your very identity. It’s trying to help you understand some mysterious unseen reality by giving you understandable imagery to imagine as true for you. “Your old self” is some shadowy thing that is corrupt with deceitful desires that we are to actively and mindfully “put off.” It’s no longer the real you. It’s something else that’s always following you.

Colossians 3:5 NIV

Colossians 3:8-10 (NIV)

This “earthly nature” — in the context of the rest of the Bible’s larger story — is referring to the thorns and thistles and dust and death of the earth without Eden — without Heaven’s presence on Earth. It’s the same thing as our “old self” that we are called to put off or put to death. It’s always fixated on something “earthly” without God’s presence and love. Something that we think we need in the moment, but we actually don’t need. But when we do not get it, we become angry, anxious, insecure, stressed. 

This false self that always shadows us gets triggered when threatened, and it blocks our awareness of the security of God’s presence and love in that moment. This is one reason why so many people live in a kind of constant, low-grade anxiety — because they never recognize their “old self” when it triggers in them. Instead of recognizing it and putting it off as a false, shadowy self, they identify with it has the real them and put it on more and get more and more hijacked by its insecurity and fear and self protection and anxiety.

Anxiety is a sign that the false self is demanding we cater to its “needs” instead of putting it off and dying to it like the Bible says. Most of our anxiety and tension and self protective relational dysfunctions are generated by this false self. The false self overshadows us from perceiving God’s presence and receiving God’s love in this moment. It keeps us stuck in repeated cycles of worry and insecurity and fear and feeling threatened. Our false self will never bring about true freedom and life.So use this meditation to imagine this reality into your body…Ephesians 4:22–24 ESV

The way we put off the old self and put on the new self is by the renewal of our mind — letting a better, truer imagination empower you with the life-giving desires of your new creation in the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.Our false self hates those words, “righteousness and holiness.” Our shadowy self redefines and reimagines them as rigid and confining and boring. But in reality they are the exact opposite. TRUE righteousness and holiness are God’s splendor and power and beauty and glory and goodness and love and trustworthiness. As Colossians 3:1 said, there’s a sense in which we’ve already died and been raised to this new glory and beauty and righteousness and holiness. We are newly created in Christ — with Christ — to be like God himself! This was always God‘s intention — imagination — for us.So right now, using your imagination, focus on breathing in your new self, and breathing out the old self.Feel this in your body right now. Letting the Holy Spirit breathe his new creation and new life into you. Breathing in the likeness of God. Breathing in true righteousness. Breathing in true holiness. Breathing out decay and corruption. The corrupted thorns and thistles and dust and death of your old self. Breathing out false, shadowy desires that lead to more thorns and thistles and dust and death.

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 Twitter @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Diego Huaman.

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 kind of Christian meditation brings the transcendent experience of God into your mind and into your body so that you can replace anxiety, insecurity, stress and tension with the better and truer imagination of God’s infinite and intimate presence and love for YOU.

(If your podcast is set to skip silent sections, disable that now.) 

Like so much of the Bible, Ephesians 4:22-24 is highly imaginative language. And it’s primarily giving you an image to imagine regarding your very identity. It’s trying to help you understand some mysterious unseen reality by giving you understandable imagery to imagine as true for you.

“Your old self” is some shadowy thing that is corrupt with deceitful desires that we are to actively and mindfully “put off.” It’s no longer the real you. It’s something else that’s always following you.

Thomas Merton called this thing the “false self.” He wrote, “Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self. We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves — the ones we are born with and which feed the roots of sin. For most of the people in the world, there is no greater subjective reality than this false self of theirs. A life devoted to the cult of this shadow is what is called a life of sin.” 

Body Meditation

In a minute we’re going to meditate on Ephesians 4 (see timestamp below). But before that, let’s get your body in a good physical and spiritual disposition to meditate so that you can recalibrate your body and mind with God’s infinite wonder and intimate presence and love for you right now in this moment.

If you’re able, lie flat on your back, or sit comfortably in a chair. Uncross your legs. And close your eyes, if you can.

And when you’re ready, begin by taking in deep breaths into your belly — intentionally making your belly rise with each breath intake. And then with each exhale, focus on letting all your muscles soften and let go of tension.

Say quietly to yourself, “Relax.”

Try to bring your mind’s awareness to feeling your entire body (all at once) feeling heavier — feeling your whole body just releasing and letting go of holding yourself up. 

This feeling is a sensation that you actually can FEEL. Like when your body feels cold — you feel that sensation inside your body. This is like that, although it’s a quieter sensation. You don’t have to do anything. Just try to focus your mind’s awareness on feeling this sensation of feeling your body relaxing. Like a microphone on stage picking up the sound of the microphone coming through the speakers and creating an increasing feedback loop. It doesn’t require any effort on your part. Just focus your mind‘s awareness on feeling the sensation of your body relaxing — your entire body all at once now. Feeling your body feeling relaxed more and more.

Let’s take some time to focus your mind on specific parts of your body…

We take time to do this kind of body meditation to re-integrate our body with our mind and then we will meditate on God‘s word and imagine and feel God’s word into our body to re-integrate our body with spiritual reality. Over the years I have found this to be a very effective way of experiencing God’s transcendent presence and intimate love. 

Continuing your slow, deep breaths, now bring your mind’s awareness back to feeling your entire body all at once. Use your imagination to feel your body from within — as if your mind is inside your entire body.

Bible Meditation

Now let’s breathe spiritual life into our body meditation by adding in biblical meditation and imagination. 

While keeping part of your attention always on feeling your body, let me read…

Ephesians 4:22–24 ESV

…Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and… be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and…put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Remember…

Colossians 3:5 NIV

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

And this list continues in v.8…

Colossians 3:8-10 (NIV)

…Anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language….(9) Since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

This “earthly nature” — in the context of the rest of the Bible’s larger story — is referring to the thorns and thistles and dust and death of the earth without Eden — without Heaven’s presence on Earth. 

It’s the same thing as our “old self” that we are called to put off or put to death. It’s always fixated on something “earthly” without God’s presence and love. Something that we think we need in the moment, but we actually don’t need. But when we do not get it, we become angry, anxious, insecure, stressed. 

That’s what the Bible is referring to as your earthly nature and your old self.

This false self that always shadows us gets triggered when threatened, and it blocks our awareness of the security of God’s presence and love in that moment. 

This is one reason why so many people live in a kind of constant, low-grade anxiety — because they never recognize their “old self” when it triggers in them. Instead of recognizing it and putting it off as a false, shadowy self, they identify with it has the real them and put it on more and get more and more hijacked by its insecurity and fear and self protection and anxiety.

Anxiety is a sign that the false self is demanding we cater to its “needs” instead of putting it off and dying to it like the Bible says. Most of our anxiety and tension and self protective relational dysfunctions are generated by this false self. The false self overshadows us from perceiving God’s presence and receiving God’s love in this moment. It keeps us stuck in repeated cycles of worry and insecurity and fear and feeling threatened. Our false self will never bring about true freedom and life.

So use this meditation to imagine this reality into your body…

Ephesians 4:22–24 ESV

…Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and… be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and … put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

The way we put off the old self and put on the new self is by the renewal of our mind — letting a better, truer imagination empower you with the life-giving desires of your new creation in the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Our false self hates those words, “righteousness and holiness.” Our shadowy self redefines and reimagines them as rigid and confining and boring. But in reality they are the exact opposite. TRUE righteousness and holiness are God’s splendor and power and beauty and glory and goodness and love and trustworthiness. As Colossians 3:1 said, there’s a sense in which we’ve already died and been raised to this new glory and beauty and righteousness and holiness. We are newly created in Christ — with Christ — to be like God himself! This was always God‘s intention — imagination — for us.

So right now, using your imagination, focus on breathing in your new self, and breathing out the old self.

Feel this in your body right now. Letting the Holy Spirit breathe his new creation and new life into you. Breathing in the likeness of God. Breathing in true righteousness. Breathing in true holiness. 

Breathing out decay and corruption. The corrupted thorns and thistles and dust and death of your old self. Breathing out false, shadowy desires that lead to more thorns and thistles and dust and death. Feel this reality in your body using your biblically guided imagination.

Timestamps:

Body Meditation - 01:05 - 14:54

Bible Meditation: Ephesians 4:22-24 - 15:26 - 25:23

End of meditation prayer - 28:41 - 30:11

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 Twitter @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Diego Huaman.

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.

The Bible’s contrast is never between Heaven and Hell. It’s between Heaven and Earth. That contrast began when Adam and Eve (Hebrew for Human and Life) were banned from Eden (Heaven on Earth meant the fill the Earth), and they were left outside in the thorns and thistles and dust and death of Heaven’s absence from the Earth.Later in the OT, the tabernacle and later the Temple became little embassies of Heaven on Earth. Physical places of God’s presence on Earth. In the NT, God is said to have become flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:14). Jesus was the very physical embodiment of Heaven on Earth. Later in the NT, the Holy Spirit indwells Jesus’s followers as they/their bodies become Temples of the Holy Spirit — embodied, physical places of Heaven on Earth. This is what YOU are — your body is — as a follower of Jesus!

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 ESV

Colossians 3:1-4 (NIV)

Colossians 3:1-2 (NIV)

Colossians 3:5 NIV

These are Earth without Heaven desires.Set your hearts… seeing with the eyes of your heart (Eph 1:18) – your imagination. Envision with your imagination so that you can experience this reality in your heart and mind and body. This is always how your life works. Your mind is always imagining certain realities or unrealities – and that imagination is what drives your desires and therefore your decisions in your life. This is how we were created — to be people with powerful imaginations that can actually see unseen realities and then create them or experience them. In Genesis 1, God first imagines and then makes it so. And he created us in his image to be the same way. But sin — Earth without Heaven desires of sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed — hijacks and captures our imagination. This is what creates your anxieties. Stress. Worries. Insecurities. Fears. These imaginations enter and affect your body in real ways.

But Christian meditation allows us to recalibrate our lives with the powerful images and imaginations of God's word given to us by his Holy Spirit. By learning to use our biblically guided imagination we can experience unseen realities and actually feel these realities in our bodies and in our lives in a way that shapes our desires and our decisions in powerful ways. Life-changing ways.

Galatians 2:20 (NIV)

The Bible has these multilayered images for us to imagine so that we can experience transcendent realities now, in this moment. Using your biblically-guided imagination, feel these realities into your body right now:

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 Twitter @davecover

Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePod

Our audio engineer is Diego Huaman.

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.