Faith Friday

Meditation Continued...

Preparing to Meditate.

As I had mentioned in my post last week, I have been reading a really good book about the spiritual disciplines and the first one covered is meditation. I am learning this discipline from the book as it is something I have never really mastered in my walk with Christ. I have always had "prayer time" but the silence and listening time was always my struggle. I decided today to put in a few things I learned in the section on preparing to meditate. It was very clear upon reading that is hard to tell someone how to meditate since it is a very personal experience.

The first thing mentioned was that it was "ok" to use your imagination and picture Jesus there with you. God gave us an imagination and although our imagination can lead us to very scary and dark places, it can also be used by God and lead us to a place where we can truly BE with him

The second thing that I noted was that the posture of meditation is mostly about finding a place that is comfortable for you but not distracting from your agenda of being with the Lord. For me, this includes sitting on my comfortable couch and just talking to God.

Another thing was discussed was what time we should meditate. Since I can't say it any better...I will quote the book on this one. It says:

" We must come to see, therefore, how central our whole day is in preparing us for specific times of meditation. If we are constantly being swept off our feet with frantic activity, we will be unable to be attentive at the moment of inward silence. A mind that is harassed and fragmented by external affairs is hardly prepared for meditation." -- Richard J. Foster

I thought that was very well said and my heart was certainly pinched as I considered how often I am frantic with activity and don't give God my ultimate in attention and time. This book is really helping me as a person learning how to Serve God more faithfully and directly.

Have a great Weekend!