Sunday, February 12, 2012

Meditation and Rest

Over the past few weeks, I've been struggling (again) with what does it mean to rest in the Lord? How do we deal with the demands of the day, but knowing that we need God's touch to deal with the demands of the day? I don't know about you, but this has been a life long struggle. I have seasons when I do better with "life-balance"; I have seasons when I'm horrible with it. Job demands, family demands, ministry demands, life demands....how can I stop for a few moments to spend time with the King?

On Friday, Lou started, our Spring study, discussing the spiritual disciplines, as outlined in Richard Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline. He started off this week by teaching on meditation. Lou challenged us to experience the discipline of meditation. Richard Foster defines Christian mediation as "the ability to hear God's voice and obey His word." According to Thomas a Kempis the purpose of meditation is calling us to "a familiar friendship with Jesus." Foster isn't trying to say that we should have some "mushy, giddy, buddy-buddy relationship with Christ"; but more the level of intimacy and frienship that the disciples experienced while walking with Christ.

So, this week I am going to take the challenge to put my "to-do" list aside, to trust God to help me push back the demands of the day, to not feel guilty about taking time to rest and to practice meditation. I hope you can take this challenge: to take a moment this week to become still, to stop and think, to stop and listen, to experience a moment of inward silence that can bring comfort and peace in our fast paced lives.

1 comment:

karen said...

I can always benefit from the reminder to sit and rest at my Father's feet. We live in such a hectic culture, filled with a plethora of distractions, that it is actually easy to put God on the back burner. I get lulled into thinking it's all about me: what I can do. More and more I am realizing my desperate need for God in every moment of every day of my life. Thank you for your perspective!