Rediscovering the Lost Art of Meditation and Silent Waiting on God

This is the second in a short course that teaches the basics of Christian meditation, or “waiting on God in stillness” in Bible language. Listen to 7 video sessions of 5 minutes each. Practice one a day and you’ll be up a running in a week.

Listen to the audio recording here.

To follow a more detailed course with 20 minute videos and notes on Christian meditation generally and centering prayer specifically, watch, listen to or read our 8 session introductory course.

Rediscovering the Lost Art of Meditation and Silent Waiting on God is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://robgerhard.com/

For those in a hurry…this is a short course to learn the basics of Christian meditation, or “waiting on God in stillness” in Bible language. Listen to 7 video sessions of 5 minutes each. Practice one a day and you’ll be up a running in a week.

Listen to the audio recording here.

To follow a more detailed course with 20 minute videos and notes on Christian meditation generally and centering prayer specifically, watch, listen to or read our 8 session introductory course.

Rediscovering the Lost Art of Meditation and Silent Waiting on God is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://robgerhard.com/

Don Love continues his discussion on the practice of surrender: how “moving into the heart” through centering prayer and releasing worried thoughts helps us to find God’s purpose, peace and presence in our lives.

Listen to the audio recording here.

Watch the discussion session after a group session of centering prayer.

This is the 7th in a series of sessions aimed at deepening the experience of centering prayer, Christian meditation or “silent waiting on God” as the Bible terms it. This session looks at the practice of surrender. To learn the foundations of centering prayer, watch, listen to or read our 8 session introductory course.

Image credit: The Entombment by Caravaggio

Rediscovering the Lost Art of Meditation and Silent Waiting on God is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://robgerhard.com/

In this session we’re going to take some time to summarize what we’ve covered in past sessions rather than breaking new ground.

There are two opposing forces within you: on the one hand there is the false self or your fallen nature, and on the other hand there is the presence of God. The latter is Christ in you or the indwelling Holy Spirit and this is who you really are in the mind of God. When you start the spiritual journey the indwelling presence of God often has only a small influence on you but it is the “mustard seed of the Kingdom” that can grow to become “the biggest tree in the garden”, or the dominant force in your life. I say “can grow” because this isn’t automatic – it takes time spent in God’s presence, time in the deep internal realm of the heart. Many experience a leveling off in their spiritual journey and a frustration that they are not making progress and are not experiencing God more deeply. Often the mustard seed has stopped growing because the core Biblical practice of silent waiting on God is neglected amidst busy lives.

In centering prayer meditation your goal is simply to be in the presence of God and to allow the divine nature room to grow and replace your brokenness. The presence of God brings an inflow of divine energy, renewal, transformation, physical healing, wisdom, clarity and many other wonderful gifts. When the false self dominates our inner world, it causes an outflow of energy. The fallen nature is like a bunch of dark spots or little black holes in your inner world that are the root of many problems such as stress, addictions, anxiety and even physical illness. What dominates your inner world determines what your outer world looks like. This is why the Bible says, “guard your heart with all diligence, because out of it flow the issues of life”.

The presence of God is redefining who you really are. The indwelling Holy Spirit is actually the personality of Christ in you and your true self is a union between you and God because you are not separate from God. This is the mystery of the Body of Christ of which we are part. Christ’s presence in you is just not influencing your life, He is your life. He is your true self. You share in the divine nature. As the “mustard tree” of God’s presence grows within you, God walks on this earth through you. But to the degree that your false self with its unhealthy need for control, affirmation and security dominates you then that is what actualizes in your life.

Silent meditation such as centering prayer is “ground zero” where we experience the transition from the false self to the true self. God’s presence is situated in the deepest part of you, in your “heart” or your spirit. But for 30 or 40 or 50 years your mind has been controlling your life so you’re not tuned in to your heart where Christ’s presence dwells. The false self controls you by thought patterns programmed and developed since childhood in response to pain and unmet needs. Centering prayer is a time where you exercise your intention and your will to switch to the presence of God, to allow your true self to be in control, and a key part of this is not engaging in mental activity.

“Silent waiting on God” is a core Biblical practice that’s necessary to strengthen the life of the Holy Spirit within you. It’s what Jesus taught in His first recorded teaching on prayer in Matthew 6:6 – a prayer that’s in the “inner room” of the heart, that “closes the door” to distracting thoughts and connects with God in the “secret place”. For many the Christian journey reaches a ceiling. While the “fruit” of the false self are chopped off, the root issues are not thoroughly dealt with because not enough time is spent at the spirit-level in God’s presence.

When God’s Spirit has time to move within you in centering prayer, He works to loosen the hold of the false self and to replace it with a greater awareness of His divine life in you. One key to this is not engaging in thoughts because the false self is rooted in mental programs that have developed since childhood. Instead you focus on connecting with the presence of God in silent stillness. Every time you let go of a thought you’re “dying to self” and loosening the hold that the false self has on you. Every time you say your sacred word as a prayer you’re choosing God’s presence as the true source of happiness rather than the unhealthy need for control, affirmation and security that make up the fallen nature.

Silence is a goal of centering prayer because it “morphs into the presence of God”. Silence leads us to a heart-level experience of God simply because we remove all of the distracting barriers and His presence is already within us. Silence is not nothing, it’s the place where your spirit man – your heart – is fully alive and is interacting with God and where mind can’t interfere.

The key to centering prayer is intention, an exercise of the will to “switch” from thoughts and the false self to the presence of God. Prayer is calling out to God from the heart. If prayer is just empty words it’s meaningless, but when it’s an act of sincerity, God responds. Prayer doesn’t need a lot of words. It can be one word. And that’s what the sacred word is: a short prayer expressing your intention and desire, an expression of the heart, of your choice to have God’s work in your life. Abbot Isaac, in commenting on the teaching of Matthew 6:6 said, “God pays no attention to words but looks hard at the heart.” Intention, expressed via the prayer of the sacred word, is the switch between the false self and the presence of God saying “no” to the one and “yes” to the other.

In this deepening series we’ve been expanding what the sacred word means.

• The core meaning of the sacred word is “God, I consent to your presence and action in my life”
• It also means “I surrender”
• It also means “I rest in you”
• It also means “I receive your grace and understand that being loved by you is not something I deserve or need to earn”
• It also means “I receive your resurrection power”
• It also means “I receive your divine love”

Listen to the audio recording here.

Watch the discussion session after a group session of centering prayer.

This is the 6th in a series of sessions aimed at deepening the experience of centering prayer, Christian meditation or “silent waiting on God” as the Bible terms it. This session serves as a “checkpoint” to summarize ground covered to date. To learn the foundations of centering prayer, watch, listen to or read our 8 session introductory course.

Rediscovering the Lost Art of Meditation and Silent Waiting on God is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://robgerhard.com/

Don Love describes the practice of surrender – a key to spiritual growth and development, and one of the important “activities” of meditation. We repeat the sacred word whenever we are distracting by thoughts during meditation as a prayer to surrender not only those thoughts to God, but all of the “real estate” that they represent in our hearts. Jesus’ life represented a constant process of surrendering Himself to God, and He calls us down the same path which is the doorway to all of Heaven’s riches.

Listen to the audio recording here.

Watch the discussion session after a group session of centering prayer.

This is the 5th in a series of sessions aimed at deepening the experience of centering prayer, Christian meditation or “silent waiting on God” as the Bible terms it. This session looks at the practice of surrender. To learn the foundations of centering prayer, watch, listen to or read our 8 session introductory course.

Image credit: The Entombment by Caravaggio

Rediscovering the Lost Art of Meditation and Silent Waiting on God is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://robgerhard.com/

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:10

If Easter is about one thing it’s about the power of God that resurrected Christ. The divine power, or “dunamis” as the word is in Greek, brought a dynamite explosion of life to the physical reality of Jesus’ human death and to the blood, pain, tears, despair and screams that preceded it. The resurrection event of Easter is about the paradox or mystery of divine power interacting with physical nature.

That paradox was also seen in Jesus’ life. He was a normal human being like you and me. He ate, slept, wept and felt rejection. But when a woman reached out and touched his cloak in a crowd, the dynamite explosion of divine life healed her of a multi-year sickness. Hundreds of others were dramatically healed. A mountain was transformed into radiant light. Food was miraculously reproduced. A tree withered from his spoken word. The hearts of his listeners burnt as Jesus spoke to them about the Father of creation and His Kingdom of love. This things happened by a spiritual power that rested easily alongside Jesus’ human nature.

The Christian faith is mystical and spiritual with a very real power that’s at work; but it’s also about that power working in and through tired earthly lives, in fragile human bodies that eat, sleep, get sick, cry, and feel pain. This is the paradox of the faith journey.

Meditation is an “engine room” where this paradox plays out in a practical way. We bring our frail and dependent human nature to God, and He responds with divine power. We release thoughts and surrender the energies of our “false self”, and there’s a renewing power that stirs up within us replacing our old dying nature with the new resurrected nature of Christ within us.

The resurrection was the crowning moment of Christ’s story. It speaks many things, but one thing it speaks very clearly is that we can also experience constant resurrection; in everyday life, as we experience human weakness, we can also enjoy the live giving power of God.

Through meditation, resurrection power can become a daily reality for us. In meditation we take a “little step” towards God and He responds with a massive step of giving His love to us and activating His power in us. As we wait silently in centering prayer we are expressing our faith that God will give us His Holy Spirit and our awareness of His Presence grows. As we rest, we are learning to accept that it is entirely by His grace – not karma – that we experience the Kingdom of God and all of its spiritually transforming realities. As we are still, we are practicing a type of “dying to self” by releasing thoughts that are linked to our false self – our need for control, affirmation and security. The more the grip of the false self, with its entrenched mental programs, is loosened through silent meditation, the more we open doors to the divine nature flowing freely within us.

The resurrection of Christ is a permanent sign of God’s intention for us. As it says in
1 Corinithians 6:14 By his power God raised the lord from the dead and he will raise us also. As you practice centering prayer, remember the crowning moment of Christ’s resurrection, and hear Him inviting you to the same experience in life and particularly in centering prayer. This is not a moment that was meant to be relegated to history. It is history to be repeated for all of eternity.

Here are nine things to know about God’s resurrection power. Ponder on these this week before you move into centering prayer meditation.

1. God’s power is the person of Christ. 1 Cor 1:24 Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. God’s power is the person of Christ, not an impersonal force. And Christ dwells within in – we are the temple of God.
2. God’s power is already resident in you but is looking for traction. 2. Cor 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. There’s an internal alignment that needs to happen for His power to work within you and to be released around you. A big part of meditation and centering prayer is about this re-alignment.
3. God’s power transforms who we are. 1 Sam 10:6 The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. All over the Bible there are examples of God’s Spirit transforming people. Centering prayer is about realizing that this happens when the false self dies, and the true self, which is Christ in you, can step to the fore. It’s not becoming something you are not, it’s becoming who you really are. This is not just psychology – its actual energy and power that can flow into and out of human beings.
4. God’s power removes us from the control of evil power. Acts 26:18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ There is an evil spiritual world – of fear, darkness and death, and there is power there too. Christ’s power is the greater power and the power we must choose to let rule our lives.
5. God’s power increases in us as our physical power decreases. 2 Cor 12:9 My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. 2 Cor 13:4 He was crucified in weakness yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we live with Him.
6. God’s power brings healing and strength to our bodies. Acts 3:12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?
7. Christ’s power gives us immunity against evil influences. Lukas 10:19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. I’ve very clearly noticed that since I’ve started centering prayer I’ve become much stronger spiritually, much less influenced by evil.
8. God’s power has impact in the work we do in our lives, in our vocations and careers. Deut 8:17 — 18 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. This promise does not only apply to wealth through the “strength of our hands”, it also applies to God’s energy, His joy, and His love which permeate the environment in which you operate.
9. We access God’s power in the secret place. Ps 63:2 — Ps 63:4 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods.

Watch the discussion session after a group session of centering prayer.

Listen to the audio recording here.

This is the 4th in a series of sessions aimed at deepening the experience of centering prayer, Christian meditation or “silent waiting on God” as the Bible terms it. This session looks at how resurrection power, God’s “dunamis“, gains access to our lives in a transformative way as a result of the work of Christian meditation. To learn the foundations of centering prayer, watch, listen to or read our 8 session introductory course.

Addendum” Why is spiritual power scarce in our world?

The great majority

The minority of the

Unfortunately, many

Rediscovering the Lost Art of Meditation and Silent Waiting on God is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://robgerhard.com/

This is the introduction to a series on deepening the devotional life and the practice of centering prayer. Centering prayer is Christian meditation or “silent waiting” as the Bible calls it and as the earliest Christian’s interpreted Jesus teaching on prayer in Matthew 6:6.

The centering prayer practice is a distinctly Christian approach to meditation and is based on the fundamental premise of grace – of God’s lavish and undeserved kindness towards mankind. Grace is a higher awareness of the divine nature than karma, it’s a closer step into the heart of God. Karma underlies basic human motivation and is the premise that you get what you deserve; you get returns only from what you invest. Karma also underlies physics as is in Newton’s third law, “for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. But the divine nature transcends physical laws and basic human motivation just like the rising sun transcends a dark night. The divine sunlight of grace and love gives us what we don’t and cannot deserve: access into the radiant warmth of the Father’s presence. And it doesn’t rely on an “equal contribution” from us beforehand or afterwards.

One of the modern day prophets of our time, the singer Bono from U2, describes the difference between grace and karma quite beautifully:

It’s a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the Universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma…

You see, at the centre of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics – in physical laws – every action is met by an equal or opposite one.  It’s clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe.  I’m absolutely sure of it.

And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that “As you reap, so will you sow” stuff.  Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff.

That’s between me and God. But I’d be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I’d be in deep s**t. It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for Grace. I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity. The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That’s the point. It should keep us humbled…. its not our own good works that get through the gates of heaven…

The Bible says in James 4:8, ‘Draw near to God and He will draw near to you’. At first glance this seems to imply that we and God make equal distant movements towards each other like one step each. But we know in fact that God has already crossed an infinite distance to reach us through Christ’s life and redemption before we had taken even the first step. “When we were still sinners Christ died for us” is how Romans 5 neatly puts it. The steps God takes and the steps we take in “drawing near” are very different. They are not expected to be equal. Our work in drawing near is basically to consent. God’s response is to give all of Himself to us as He already has done in Christ.

This series looks at better understanding the “steps” that we and God both take towards each other in order for us to experience the divine presence, the beauty of union with Christ, the warmth of friendship with God and the transforming effect of His power in our hearts. I call these steps the “forces of the devotional life”, a kind of a push and pull between us and God like Jacob wrestling with the angel through the night.

The devotional life is the connection we have with God, and the “forces” we exert towards God are gentle and restful. In the same way centering prayer, like the whole devotional life, is a gentle action of consent, of surrender, of quiet waiting, of release and receptivity.

The problem is that karma is deeply embedded in our fallen human nature, in our ego. We have a strong desire to earn things and thereby to be in control of our destination in life. A journey into the heart of God is in the opposite direction; it requires dying to the ego and the desire to control, and allowing God’s love and kindness to control the direction we travel with Him.

This series is important even for beginners in centering prayer and meditation because it examines some of the very rich layers of truth in Christianity that describe the devotional life and the experience of God’s presence, and it help to anchor the daily practice of meditation by understanding the Biblical foundations on which is exists.

So what does the Bible teach as the correct ways for us to “draw near” in the devotional life? What are the forces we exert towards God? What are the spiritual postures we adopt towards Him in centering prayer? Some of them that we will examine are:

And what are God’s moves in drawing near towards us?

These are the topics we’re talking about in the weeks to come. For centering prayer they help us get into the right posture, to rely on grace not karma. They expand what we mean by the prayer of our sacred word, and they increase our expectation of knowing what God will do in response during our meditation time.

Watch the discussion session after a group session of centering prayer.

Listen to the audio recording here.

This is the introduction to a series of sessions aimed at deepening the experience of centering prayer, Christian meditation or “silent waiting on God” as the Bible terms it. To learn the foundations of centering prayer, watch, listen to or read our 8 session introductory course.

Rediscovering the Lost Art of Meditation and Silent Waiting on God is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://robgerhard.com/

Psalm 63:3-5 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

God answers every one of our prayers and He’s attentive to every human being, but He often doesn’t answer our prayers the way we expect or even want Him to. This is because He looks deeper in our hearts to know the true motives for every prayer, and then meets the real need that we are crying out for. Notice how when Jesus was asked things, he often didn’t respond directly. At first glance His responses even seem dismissive but a closer look shows that he was responding to the person’s heart, responding to the motivation asking the question, to the real issue. God’s response to prayer is always to do a work in our hearts. From the heart the energy of life flows and unlimited things are possible if our hearts are aligned with Him, if we are channels not blockages for God’s power.

We remember our teenage prayers: asking God to make us better looking or to loose weight. As we grow older a more sophisticated version of the same thing is that we ask God for things related to having friends or more popularity. There is an answer to those prayers; not the “dead heaven” we think when nothing seems to have happened. The answer is a work in our hearts. Perhaps the desire for a better appearance or friendship is the cry of the false self, an unhealthy need for affirmation that needs people to satisfy. God’s answer then is to expose that fallen part of our psyche, and to meet the deeper need for His love and affirmation. His answer to the prayer is the deeper cry, not the shallow cry.

This is where the love of God comes in. An experience of divine love is transformative because it meets the deepest human needs for acceptance and affirmation in a healthy way. Augustine said, “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you” and spoke of a God-sized emptiness in every heart that only the divine Presence can fill. The response to prayer is that God gives His love, and works in our internal and external situations so that we can receive His love.

This is the goal of centering prayer: to experience God’s love and to know the love of God as a reality, in the heart not the head. Sometimes the experiences of God’s love feels tangible and strong but most often its subtle and possible not even noticed (by the mind). But either way the time in contemplative prayer is transformative. After a few months of centering prayer, you’ll see a new confidence in your life, a new security and a new peace because the love of God has filled your soul and put “substance” into those empty areas of loneliness, insecurity. and misguided passions. The “living flame of love” is ignited and is maintained with every encounter that we have with Him.

In this session we’re describing another “layer” of the sacred word which is the prayer, “I want to experience your love“. In the eight week introduction, the prayer was, “I consent to your presence and your action” and in this series on deepening meditation we’ve added, “I rest in you” and “I receive your grace”. These are all like different colors of light that blend together into white. They’re different aspects that merge into the same basic thing: that when we’re praying the sacred word we’re saying, “I want to experience everything that you are to me God in place of my own thoughts,  my broken self, my harmful passions and my desires for happiness.”

The love of a God is a real substance. The mystics have described it almost like matter, like light that is both wave energy and matter. God’s love brings light and warmth, and at the same time it is food that nourishes our hearts. Psalm 63:3-5 Because your love is better than life … my soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods.

Here are nine things to know about God’s love. Reflect on these before your times of centering prayer this week so that you incorporate a desire for God’s love in the prayer expressed by your sacred word.

Listen to the audio file here.

Watch the discussion session after a group session of centering prayer.

This is the third in a series of sessions aimed at deepening the experience of centering prayer, Christian meditation or “silent waiting on God” as the Bible terms it. To learn the foundations of centering prayer, watch, listen to or read our 8 session introductory course.

Rediscovering the Lost Art of Meditation and Silent Waiting on God is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://robgerhard.com/

Contemplative prayer, the term used for centuries in church history for the experience of the Presence of God, is a movement of divine grace. This experience was always taught as being a gift from God, a gift of His grace. You can’t earn it and you don’t deserve it. At the same time, resting in God’s presence deepens our understand of amazing grace causing an experiential knowledge of this beautiful aspect of God’s nature to sink deeply into our hearts where faith, hope and love arise in response.

We will more regularly experience deep and intimate connection with God in prayer if we keep this one thought in the forefront of our minds and hearts: that God continues to give Himself in love to us moment by moment in the same way that Christ gave up His own life for us two thousand years ago. This is amazing grace.

Recall that centering prayer, the meditation method we’ve been learning, is simply that: a method or a practice. The method is meant to lead to contemplative prayer – the gift of the experience of God’s presence in prayer. When integrated into a regular daily disciple, centering prayer brings us to more frequent experiences of God’s presence that enlarge our spiritual lives, lead to a closer union with Christ as experienced reality and slowly but surely transform everything in our lives.

Centering prayer is based on saying the “sacred word” as a prayer to consent to Christ’s presence and action in our hearts whenever we are distracted by thoughts. In this series we’re adding additional “layers” of meaning to the prayer expressed by the sacred word. In the previous session, we added the prayer, “I rest in you” and in this session our prayer is “I receive your grace“. Resting in God and receiving His grace are in fact two sides of the same coin. Resting in God’s presence relies on grace – you’re there because you believe that you’re accepted and that you’re loved. Even if you don’t feel it, you choose to believe it. You accept that God is giving Himself to you and that there’s nothing else He wants you to do in this moment other than to receive from Him and to let His love flow over you. The acceptance of divine grace leads to an increase in our experience God’s presence.

Silence is the intimate moment when our understanding of God’s grace is tested. I remember clearly a moment early on in my centering prayer journey – perhaps two months in. I reached a point of silence stillness and was very aware that I was present with God. I felt awkward and tempted to begin some kind of activity to justify being with Him, but I knew that this was inappropriate. Like Peter in his moment of divine encounter on the Mount of Transfiguration I felt like I wanted to begin talking and doing something random like constructing shelters. Instead I stayed still and felt the Lord touch my heart with the assurance that I belonged with Him in the intimacy of His presence, and that I didn’t need to perform in any way to remain there with Him. For me this was a powerful moment of accepting His gracious kindness and it has had a lasting impact in increasing my experience of God’s presence.

There’s a part of the false self, of our fallen ego that struggles to accept the lavish kindness and grace of God and that feels it needs to earn God’s favor and love. This is the orphan nature within us. Though we are adopted as God’s children, a part of us doesn’t yet know the grace that has secured our place as sons and daughters in God’s house. When this orphan nature is institutionalized in church programs and structures, we get the worst of religion that boils down to a single formula: rules and rituals that you need to perform to “earn” God’s love. Of course that doesn’t work very well because grace cannot be earned, so instead it produces religion with very little real experience of God, and often a lot of ego-driven performance.

Here are eight thoughts about divine grace to ponder over the next week. I recommend you take a few minutes before your time of centering prayer to allow these to sink from your mind into your heart.

Listen to the audio file here.

Watch the discussion session after a group session of centering prayer.

This is the second in a series of sessions aimed at deepening the experience of centering prayer, Christian meditation or “silent waiting on God” as the Bible terms it. To learn the foundations of centering prayer, watch, listen to or read our 8 session introductory course.

Rediscovering the Lost Art of Meditation and Silent Waiting on God is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://robgerhard.com/

“Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:29-31

The deep spiritual rest that comes from silent waiting meditation produces a kind of divine “kinetic energy” that results in power and action. It’s like getting lifted to a higher place, to a higher platform. Impact and fruitfulness in life is then like diving off that platform. Isaiah 40 beautifully describes this with the image of the eagle being lifted up effortlessly by heat thermals that press up against its outstretched wings. In the same way God’s divine energy replenishes our human weakness when we wait on him, and we need this because “even youths grow tired and weary”.  As we we connect with God in silent meditation, He breathes the energy of divine life into our deepest hearts; this is the fuel for true impact and fruitfulness.

All motion begins with rest, and rest is a core part of the spiritual journey. But resting as the Bible describes it is an action, something that requires intention. Deep heart-level connection with God in meditation is the source of spiritual rest.

The Need for Spiritual Rest

As we all know, rest is important for the body, and that is why we sleep every 24 hours. But we are more than just a body; deeper than the body is the soul and we also understand that we need rest for our mind and emotions, though not everybody knows how to do this well. Again, we are more than a mind with emotions; there is a deeper “ground of being” to our lives that is our heart, our spirit, and this is where rest is most important, because this is the “life source” of our being. Spiritual rest, however, is not like going to sleep. Rather, it’s connecting to the Source of Everything, to God’s divine presence.

A great picture of this is the story of Mary and Martha. The latter was working herself to frustration in the kitchen while Mary “sat at the feet of Jesus”, connected in her heart to Him and being energized by His presence and words. Jesus commended Mary and not Martha: “Mary has chosen the better way, and it will not be taken away from her’. Activity without spiritual connection to God’s presence is Martha-like, empty and frustrating. Mary, on the other hand, gained something eternal: a deeper heart connection with God. “It will not be taken away” because knowing God is the unique opportunity that begins in this life, and that never ends.

One of the great paradoxes of the spiritual journey is that the more we focus on connection with the divine Presence, the more we “abide in the vine”, the more true fruit we generate, and the greater the eternal value we gain. Isaiah 64:4 says it very well, “He is a God who works for those who wait on Him.” The corollary is also true: when we “work” frantically in a disconnected way like Martha did, God seems to stand back and wait for us to finish and hit the inevitable point of frustration so that we can learn something. When we wait on Him, He begins to work for us, through us and in us.

Centering prayer is an important way of practicing rest at the deepest spiritual level. It also rests the mind and the body, but the spiritual work of silent waiting on God is it’s greatest fruit.

What is Spiritual Rest?

Here are several thoughts to understand spiritual rest. Consider these and the scriptures for each as “fuel” for your intention in centering prayer.

The Goal of Centering Prayer

Spiritual rest is one of the goals of centering prayer and all of the aspects described above are “at work” during this time of heart level connection with God. In centering prayer:

Practical Application

The sacred word in centering prayer is “shorthand” for our intention to consent to God’s presence and action within us. Now, with an understanding of the beautiful concept of spiritual rest, we include in the meaning of the sacred word, “I rest in you”.

Listen to the audio file here.

Watch the discussion session after a group session of centering prayer together.

This is the first in a series of sessions aimed at deepening the experience of centering prayer, Christian meditation or “silent waiting on God” as the Bible terms it. To learn the foundations of centering prayer, watch, listen to or read our 8 session introductory course.

Rediscovering the Lost Art of Meditation and Silent Waiting on God is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://robgerhard.com/