Philippians 4:7-9 NKJV
Galatians 5:22 NKJV
Philippians 4:19
Psalm 19:14 NKJV
Listening Series
When my children were small our house was a very noisy rowdy place. You’d a thought a tribe of Indians and a brigade of soldiers lived under our roof. Contrary to what people thought, it was just three boys and one older sister doing the best she could to maintain some semblance of order. It was worse when I ran the sweeper...that’s because they could tell where I was at and what I was doing.
I did not work outside the home when my children were very small. I couldn’t afford child care because I had too many children. I cherish the years I had with them when they were small and I now consider it one of the greatest blessings of my life.
Now mind you, I did not watch television during those days and I seldom sat down. I did not spend more than five minutes on the telephone (by choice) during those years. There was a lot to do to keep a family of six fed, clothed, and clean. I was usually washing and drying, or folding clothes. At one point I did 3-4 loads of clothes a day. They did let them watch a little television, but I limited it because I figured they needed to use up their energy. Even when they watched television there were squabbles and arguments, so I was constantly mitigating conflict.
My daughter did take a nap, but the boys had way too much energy for that sort of thing. The two older boys stopped taking a nap before they turned two years old.
I loved having a large family and I wouldn’t change it for anything, but peace and extended prayer time wasn’t on the menu.
What I did have was about an hour in the evening after they settled in for the night. My husband loved watching television, especially anything sports related so while they were tucked away in their beds and he was watching TV, I would run off to one of my quiet places to sit in silence. At that time I didn’t know that sitting in silence and meditating was “a real thing”. I did it because in that silence, I found the peace of God.
In Philippians 4:7-9 Paul wrote, “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”
Years later when the kids were teenagers I studied several different kinds of meditation. I found that listening and watching for the true character of God sometimes requires active action. As I learned to pay attention I found God showed up in the form of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. At the time, I was doing a 15-20 minute children’s sermon in church every week and I spoke a lot about the fruit of the spirit (found in Galatians 5:22) because it helps children learn who God IS.
Looking for the character of God is an important component to listening and watching for where God is at work in our lives.
When God shows up, we can identify Him by feeling his character. That’s because meditation is heightened state of awareness where we focus attention toward God (Christian Meditation by Edmund P. Clowney, 1979, pp. 12–13 and The encyclopedia of Christianity, Volume 3 by Erwin Fahlbusch, Geoffrey William Bromiley 2003, p. 488.)
Years later in Seminary when I studied pastoral counseling I learned that we remember and retain how we FEEL longer than we remember facts. God is relational and wants to connect with His children, and we have emotional clues to His character we can watch for. We know He (the Spirit) is close to us when we sense feelings of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.
Meditating and sitting in silence makes it so we can stop “the crazy busy” in our brain. Once we stop the voices in our head, we can feel the character of God. We can also hear God, but some people find that difficult. I tend to think that’s because we can get addicted to having the “noise” in our head and not having it freaks us out.
In that sense, meditation is like running a marathon. You come to a moment in time when you have to keep going to ‘push past’ your breaking point. Once you break through, the Spirit will flood you with feelings.
As we focus on God, we practice watching for the character of God and listening for the voice of God. For me, as I opened my heart and mind to the silence, one of the identifying signs of the presence of God was experiencing God’s peace. I don’t know if that was because I desperately needed peace during that busy time of my life or if that is the same for everyone. I believe God meets us where we are ‘at’ and gives us what we need (Philippians 4:19).
In Psalm 19:14, David wrote:
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Just a note here, the “acceptable in your sight” doesn’t refer to our sin...it refers to our offering the gift of ourselves, our attentiveness to God, and our love for God (https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/psalm-19/).
Looking back I think I started practicing meditation as a means of survival. It became much more than a survival technique. Years later when I have grandchildren who are in college, It’s one of my favorite things to do. I look forward to my quiet time with God and there are times when it’s the absolute best part of my day.
It IS a blessing!
Today’s Spiritual Practice is: Offer God Yourself
Give God the gift of your time. Sit in silence and watch for the character of God to show up.
In God, Deborah
acrazyjourney.com
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