Tag: meditate

  • The Lord is my Shepherd

    “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” — Psalm 23:1–3.

    As I read this passage, my mind and soul feel wrapped in comfort and peace. Through the flurry of the week’s events, God’s words speak restoration and renewal.

    It’s difficult to come aside and take time to read scripture, let alone, practice what is written. Yet, I know from past experience that when I do make the time to meditate and pray my day goes smoother. My mind stays focused and uncluttered and I accomplish much more than when I constantly worry.

    Dear God, forgive me when I want more than I really need. Help me to be content with the many blessings you’ve already give. When I’m content and appreciative, it’s then that you can teach and lead me. I look forward to quiet waters and green pastures.

    Are you at a place where it’s hard to look around and see calmness in your life? Can you step aside for even 10 minutes and name your blessings one by one?

    Los Cabos shoreline – photo by Steve Lasher

  • 2 steps to Decision Making

    Wrestling with a decision?  — 2 steps to help make that decision:

    1. Seek to discover God’s will. Meditate in order to seek answers and direction. Come aside by yourself and quietly wait before God. “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Jesus’ schedule was hectic even by today’s standards. People pressed around him continually. He knew what the word busy meant.

    In the gospel of Mark, Jesus and his disciples had just finished feeding the 5,000. You would think the people would be satisfied and would leave them alone for a time, but such was not the case. “Because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he [Jesus] said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place” (Mark 6:31, 32).

    2.   Get up and go!  “Arise, let us go from here” There’s a time to contemplate, and a time to do. Don’t linger or daydream anymore. Daydreaming time is over once I know what it is I am to be doing or saying. “But the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commended me. ‘Come now; let us leave’” (John 14:31).

    “Allow God to be the source of all my dreams, joys, and delights, and be careful to go and obey what He has said.” — Oswald Chambers

    Do you have a quiet place where you can be alone with your thoughts and with God? It’s tough to come aside where no distractions bombard your brain. I get that, but you must make a concentrated, deliberate effort to seek out and dwell in this place until your mind is emptied of all but God-thoughts. Then, and only then, can God speak to you uninterrupted. His peace, which passes all understanding, will then guide you to the next step (Philippians 4:7).

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