- When you are still, you can listen to God
- You receive peace, clarity, and guidance
- Be Present with God through this free mini course to guide you using four spiritual practices
Prayer is Talking to God - Meditation is Listening to God
This Psalm, “Be still and know that I am God,” is one of the most beloved and quoted Bible verses. I believe that’s because it’s so simple yet so powerful. It’s easy to memorize, and, perhaps, in a moment of crisis or confusion, this verse has come to you – or you even heard God say these words to you, “Be still.”
The Hebrew definition of be still is to stop striving, to let go, and surrender. The fact is, you can’t know God more fully until you spend time with God. You do that through spiritual practices like prayer, contemplative prayer, meditation, meditating on God’s Word, or journaling.
Like any deep relationship where you really get to know someone, it requires two-way communication. That’s why I say that prayer is talking to God and meditation is listening to God.
The Greatest Commandment
When Jesus was tested by the Pharisees with the question, “Which commandment in the law is the greatest,” he answered:
The Truth Is
You can’t love God with all your mind with a racing mind full of anxiety, doubts, fear, worry, and self-criticism.
We were given wonderful minds to think. The problem is thoughts of anxiety, worry, and fear about the wrong things, big or small: test results, computer issues, our children, rehashing an interaction gone bad, to-do lists a mile long, looming deadlines, regrets…
Certainly, these swirling thoughts are not lovely or worthy of praise!
These negative and anxious thoughts hold you in bondage, preventing you from a life of freedom – For freedom Christ has set us free. (Galatians 5:1). They block you from feeling fully loved by God.
When your mind is cluttered with worry, anxiety, fear and swirling thoughts, you can’t enjoy the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
When your life becomes an endless to-do list, moving at break-neck speed from one commitment to another, you crowd out joy, peace, and fulfillment.
The world will tell you (as well as your inner critic) that you don’t have enough, you aren’t doing enough, and worse, you aren’t being enough.
Spoiler alert, there will always be more to do.
The four spiritual practices covered in Be Present with God will help you to silence or at least turn down the volume of inner, negative thoughts that rob you of peace and joy and feeling disconnected from God to feeling connected with God.
In John 18:36, Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world.” And in Luke 17:20-21 he says, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” (NKJV)
We are in the world but not of the world. These spiritual practices act as a bridge from our material world to the spiritual kingdom where God’s Spirit rules in our hearts.
