Christian Meditation is a quiet time for you to re-integrate and re-calibrate your mind with your body. And re-integrate and re-calibrate your mind and body with God‘s presence with you and in you. Remember the quote from the apostle Paul in Acts 17:28 – In him you live and move and have your being.

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People are discovering all kinds of benefits of meditation. I think that’s a good thing. But when it comes to meditation, the Bible’s been here all along. Meditation, or another word like it in the Bible is contemplation, is something God’s people have been doing for thousands of years.

Christian meditation is learning to focus and discipline your mind in a way that blocks out the noise and chatter in your brain. Whether it’s all the digital noice constantly barraging you with email, texts, social media, video games, streaming entertainment, or just the voice in your head that is constantly wandering into ruminating on past conflicts or hurts, or worry about possible future stories or troubles (using the power of your imagination in anxiety-building ways). And as the teaching of Jesus emphasized in Matthew 6, these kinds of wandering thoughts and imaginations usually do more harm than good. They make us embittered victims, and put us in a self-protective disposition of hostility and anxiety. And all of this puts even more stress and anxiety into your disposition and into your body. 

So in Christian meditation, you’re intentionally focusing your inner voice and thoughts on re-integrating and re-calibrating your body and mind with God’s presence and love in your life. 

Now… when you try to meditate this way, you’ll discover that this is hard to do. Your mind will constantly try to wander into other imaginations. Other stories. When you catch yourself doing that, don’t get frustrated with yourself when it happens. It’s normal. Just pick right back up with where we are in our meditation and try to keep your focus on what I’m saying as best as you can. But one reason why a podcast like this is helpful is that it helps keep your mind’s focus on meditation. 

This is a time for you to meditate and focus your thoughts and imagination on the light-bringing, life-giving presence of your Heavenly Father who is 100% present with you right now.

Remember Jesus says in Matthew 6:6 NIV

“…When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.”

Jesus wants you to imagine a reality that you can’t see.

So in this moment, we’re carving out a quiet time to be alone with God. Using your biblically guided imagination to feel and experience God’s presence, and everything that means, in a way that replaces stress and anxiety and worry and anger with God’s peace and joy and love. 

“…When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.”

Right now, use your biblically guided imagination to imagine what Jesus is telling you to imagine – it’s just you and God alone together. So imagine how you are alone right now with the I AM who created the entire universe! As if it’s just you and him! He is infinite, so he is 100% present with you right now without being any less present anywhere else. 

So try to focus your mind right now on feeling your body alone in the awe and the wonder and the transcendence of the presence of God. 

Imagine how God is fully present with every cell in your body.

Jesus says he is unseen, but fully present with you even when you’re behind closed doors alone in your room. The I AM is always infinitely present with you. 

This is God’s promise to you everywhere in Scripture. Even in his very name — the ancient Hebrew name for God in the Hebrews Scriptures is Yahweh — the ancient Hebrew form of the verb, HE IS. God’s very name is always in the present tense because he wants you to know and envision that HE IS always present with you fully.

Use your biblically guided imagination to envision and feel this reality right now — God infinitely and fully present with you and in your body right now.

Jesus quoted from the Psalms more than any other book in the Hebrew Scriptures. And on more than one occasion he talks about how God’s Spirit is speaking to us in the Psalms. Jesus had a very high view of the Psalms in the Hebrew Scriptures being the word of God for us.

So Jesus is saying what the Psalms in the Hebrew Scriptures had already said… 

Psalm 73:23 ESV

I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. 

This is the language of imagination. God is giving you this scripture, written by his Holy Spirit, so that you can picture his reality with your imagination. God continually with you — you continually with God — in this moment — he is right there holding your hand.

So use your biblically guided imagination to envision what God wants you to envision. 

Take a deep breath in and slowly let it out…

And try to focus your mind on feeling this reality — you with God so close and intimate that he is right there holding your hand! Try to feel it into your body as you let go of tension and anxiety and let the muscles and nerves and tendons soften all throughout your body. 

Try to feel your whole body rest in this promise. God is 100% with you right now. 

I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. 

Feel the awe and the wonder and the transcendence of the I AM’s infinite, life-giving presence in your whole body. Let it calm the tension of your own anxieties and fears. 

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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.