Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life with Pastor Dave Cover
Christian Meditation can help refocus your mind and recalibrate your body to get the stress, anxiety and anger out of your heart and out of your body. Spend about 23 minutes to "be still" with God as each episode uses a different biblical image to e...
Recent Episodes
A Christian Meditation with Psalm 42:8
21:30 | 03-10-2022
Biblically guided meditation imagines the unseen realities of God as your Source of Life and Love and Joy and Peace, and speaks these realities to your soul – body, mind, and spirit — your whole self. Jesus says in Matthew 6:6, “...When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” Imagine you and God together in the present. The I AM is always infinitely present with you. Imagine you are alone with the I AM who created the entire universe! Let Jesus' words bring the reality of God’s comforting love and peace-giving presence alive using your biblically guided imagination. Jesus said, “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” Imagine this reality that Jesus is telling you. Envision your entire body in the peace and love and care and the presence of the I AM — of your Father who is unseen but 100% alone with you. One definition of prayer is an intentional awareness of God’s presence. His glory. His love. His faithfulness. Jesus says, When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Psalm 42:8 NIV By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me — a prayer to the God of my life. This is the psalmist’s meditation. Use it to see this reality with your biblically guided imagination, and use that imagination to feel this reality in your whole body. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me — a prayer to the God of my life. When it says the LORD, that’s translating the Hebrew name for God — Yahweh — which is Hebrew for HE IS. Always in the present tense. He is always with you. We always meet God in the present. That’s where he always is with us. Right now God is with you and right now he is directing his love toward you. He is the God of your life. He gives life to every cell in your body. He is the source of all being. He is the giver of all life. And you exist because he gives you life. And he gives you life and directs his love toward you right now — at every moment. He is always 100% in the present tense with you. Always present with you fully without being any less present anywhere else. He is the infinite I AM. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me — a prayer to the God of my life. He’s the God of your life. The psalms says, “at night his song is with me.” God sings love songs over you. In an OT prophecy about how Jesus will bring God’s redemption and restoration… Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV) “The LORD your God is with you, …He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” Because of Jesus, God is always with you and he always takes great delight in you and rejoices over you with singing. Because of Jesus, the forever God is your God forever who forever sings his love songs over you. Anxiety and bodily awareness of God’s love and presence cannot exist at the same time. Neither can insecurity. He’s the God of your life. Say quietly to yourself… “Because I have Jesus, the forever God is the God of my life forever. I am safe. I am not in danger. He is the God of my life Who is always directing his love toward me.” Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it. Follow Dave Cover on Twitter https://twitter.com/davecover (@davecover) Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter https://twitter.com/abiggerlifepod (@ABiggerLifePod) This podcast is a ministry of https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (The Crossing), a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.
A Christian Meditation with Psalm 48:9
19:53 | 03-08-2022
Psalm 139 says God intimately and lovingly created every part of your body. Your body is a good creation of God. Yes, we are all in a kind of exile in a fallen creation in bondage to death and decay. And that’s true of our body. But it’s also true that God has an eternal purpose for the redemption of your body (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%208%3A23&version=NIV (Rom 8:23)). There will be a resurrection and transformation of your body when Jesus returns (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians%203%3A20-21&version=NIV (Phil 3:20-21)). So God even now fully inhabits your body by his Spirit. Remember 1 Cor 6:19 — “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.” Which means that Jesus has already made your body holy in his sight. Just think about that for a minute – your body is a holy temple of the Holy Spirit. God loves your body so much that he wants to reside there right now. In this present moment. Feel the “life energy” that God’s Spirit, God’s breath, God’s power gives to every cell in your body as intensely as you can. God is the source of all existence and the giver of all life. This means all life – including every living cell in your body. God right now is giving life to every living cell in your body. He is present with that cell. 100% aware of that cell. And that cell gets its very life from God’s Spirit. This is true for everybody whether they realize it or not. But let’s take some time to meditate on this and feel this truth right now using your biblically guided imagination. Psalms 48:9 (NIV) Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love. 1 Cor 6:19 gives this meditation a whole new meaning…“your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.” As we meditate on God’s unfailing love within the new temple of his Spirit, our body made holy by Jesus, let your attention run through your entire body like a wave of imagination and meditation. Feel your whole body in its totality, as a whole body filled with God’s life-giving Spirit and God’s unfailing love. Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love. Feel the “life energy” that God’s Spirit, God’s breath, God’s power, God’s unfailing love gives to every cell in your body. Try to hold that feeling. Be mentally present in your attention to every part, every cell of your body. This is to embrace and inhabit your God-created, God-inhabited body fully. To feel your body from within, so to speak. Total body awareness — using your imagination — helps you embrace your body — recalibrate your body — with the reality of God’s life-giving power and presence and unfailing love. God is always with you and looking at you with unfailing love. The forever God is your God forever because of his unfailing — eternal — love for you that’s always directed toward you in Christ. Say quietly to yourself… “I am calm and at rest in God‘s unfailing love for me.” Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it. Follow Dave Cover on Twitter https://twitter.com/davecover (@davecover) Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter https://twitter.com/abiggerlifepod (@ABiggerLifePod) This podcast is a ministry of https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (The Crossing), a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.
A Christian Meditation with Galatians 5:22
32:26 | 03-03-2022
We wake up from dreams we don’t remember but often they have put anxiety, insecurity and anger in our hearts and in our bodies. That’s one reason I personally do this meditation first thing in the morning. I also do it at the end of my work day. That’s about 45 minutes. But I’d rather spend 45 minutes recalibrating my mind and my body on God’s presence through meditation than watching another 45 minutes of TV or scrolling through social media. And it makes a noticeable difference in my emotional and spiritual and physical wellbeing. (If your podcast app is set to skip over silent sections, disable that now for this podcast) Let’s begin by lying/sitting/you could be walking in nature. Breathe/Exhale/Awareness of your body’s tension (relax it more with each exhale). Try to mentally inhabit your body fully. To always have some of your attention in the inner condition of your body. To feel your body from within, so to speak. Body awareness reconnects your body to your mind/soul. Just do that for a minute while I say some things about meditation using biblically guided imagination… The Bible is filled with as much (if not more) imagery than it is straight propositional truth. The images are meant to appeal to our imagination. Our desires are driven by our imagination. Advertisers know this, of course, which is why most ads really aren't giving us information as much as imagination. Have this. Do this. Be this. So in meditation we want to use the images God gives us by his Spirit in his word — scripture — to help us see God with the eyes of our heart. And the more we do, through our biblically guided imagination, the more our hearts will desire him more than the false promises of sin that usually grab most of our imagination. One way to define prayer is awareness of and connection to God in our mind and in our bodies. Continue to focus on breathing deeply and being aware of and relaxing your whole body with each exhale… Let’s specifically focus on a few areas where we typically hold our tension and stress. Christian meditation focuses you on biblical imagery showing how you — your body — utterly depend upon God’s life-giving Spirit at every moment. Paul says, “In him we live and move and have our being” (Act 17:28). Of course most people don’t realize this or think of themselves this way, and even WE live our lives often ignoring God. But regardless whether we acknowledge it or not, it’s God who gives us life at every moment we’re alive. Every cell in our body. Continue to focus on breathing deeply and being aware of and relaxing your whole body with each exhale… Let’s recalibrate our mind and body to reality by imagining this reality and experiencing it in meditation. Imagine every cell in your body being given its life by God’s Spirit. This imagery can bring relaxation and relieve stress from your body. Let’s meditate on the imagery of… Ephesians 5:18 — “Be filled with the Spirit.” It’s an amazing thing to think – the God that created this universe is in me! In my body. The life-giving, universe-creating power of the Spirit of God is in me! I want his power to fill me! Fill every cell in my body! Continue to focus on breathing deeply and being aware of and relaxing your whole body with each exhale… Let’s imagine that now as we focus on a few more areas where we typically hold our tension and anxiety in our body. Your body is filled with God’s Spirit — No fear. No insecurity. No threat. Let’s meditate on the imagery of… Galatians 5:22-23 ESV …The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control. (This is what true holiness is.) Continue to focus on breathing deeply and being aware of and relaxing your whole body with each exhale… When you have God’s Spirit in you, then this is how God is toward YOU — loving, joyful, peace, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle....
A Christian Meditation with John 17:23
17:39 | 03-01-2022
In biblical meditation, you’re intentionally focusing your thoughts and using the power of your imagination to experience the reality of God's presence and promises in your life. In addition to that, what we want to do in this meditation is mentally reintegrate our body with our soul. In modern society we live these bifurcated lives where our soul is mentally disconnected from our awareness of our body. When this happens, we can store stress and anxiety in our body but our mind is not aware of it. In this meditation, we want to reintegrate our soul by bringing our mind to a better awareness of our whole being — mind and body as a whole. Embracing our whole body with our mind as an important part of who we are. And that way we can sense when we have stress and anxiety and insecurity and deal with it on the soul level. Of course, when you do try to meditate this way, you’ll discover that it’s hard to do. Your mind will wander into other imaginations. Other stories. This is normal so don’t get frustrated with yourself when it happens. This is why this podcast is helpful. Try to focus your mind on what’s being said and if you find that your mind has wandered. No worries. Just rejoin us. But first, if your podcast app is set to skip silent sections, disable that now. To begin… Lie flat on your back …or sit comfortably in a chair. You might want to close your eyes so you can focus your thoughts and imagination better. Try to be in a place without a lot of lights and loud sounds. Begin to take in slow, deep, relaxing breaths through your nose. As you exhale, focus your mind on relaxing your body a little more with each breath. This kind of breathing has been shown to signal to your brain that you’re calm and at ease. Each time you breathe and relax, you’ll find that you can even relax a little more with your next exhale. There’s always a little more tension in your body that you can let go of with each breath. Continue with this kind of relaxed, deep breathing all throughout this meditation. Let’s take a moment now to focus on this kind of breathing and relaxing to put your body in good disposition for meditation. Feel the weight of your body more and more as you feel gravity pulling your body a little more with each breath. While you’re focusing on this kind of breathing, let me read a verse on something amazing Jesus said in his prayer to the Father in… John 17:23 (NIV) I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. The God who created everything everywhere in the universe is in you — including your body — through Jesus. Remember the two verses from our previous episode that said… Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God. …God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to you. While you’re breathing and relaxing, meditate on this reality Jesus describes, using your imagination to feel in your body and to experience the Father being in Jesus and Jesus being in you. In the second part of that verse in Jesus’s prayer he says… you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. A lot of the tension and stress in your body is due to anxiety and worry and insecurity that would be alleviated if you truly felt that your Heavenly Father loves you just as much as he loves Jesus. But Jesus says that exactly true because Jesus is IN you. His righteousness is IN you. Everything that makes Jesus the perfect human perfectly accepted before God the Father is IN you. So after Jesus came out of the water when he was baptized, it says in… Mark 1:11 (NIV) And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” If you have Jesus in you, and if, as Jesus says, God loves you even as the Father loved the Son, then...
A Christian Meditation with 1 Corinthians 6:19
19:35 | 02-24-2022
Meditation is an essential practice God’s people have been doing for thousands of years, just as King David wrote over 3,000 years ago in Psalms 19:14, “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” What meditation? Well, what he just meditated on in this psalm. So “this meditation of my heart,” as David puts it, is like what the apostle Paul calls, “the eyes of your heart” in https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%201%3A18&version=NIV (Eph. 1:18). Meditation is imagination more than information. In this podcast episode, we’re carving out a quiet time to be alone with God. Using meditation to reintegrate and recalibrate your mind and heart AND your body with the vertical reality of God’s presence with YOU, and God’s promises for YOU. Our body is an important part of who we are. And it is a common place where we store our stress and anxiety and insecurity. In Psalm 38 David talks about how being out of sync with God affected his body. The guided meditation in this episode is a time set aside to experience God in a way that reintegrates your mind, heart, and body connection and replaces stress and anxiety and worry and insecurity with the peace and joy and assurance of God’s love and promises for you in Christ. Personally, I actually listen to one of these episodes first thing each morning, and then another one at the end of my workday. That might be too much for you. But if you can find a rhythm that works for you, you’ll notice a difference in your mind, heart, and body over time. (But first, if your podcast app is set to skip silent sections, disable that now.) To begin… Lie flat on your back …or sit comfortably in a chair. You might want to close your eyes so you can focus your thoughts and imagination better. Try to be in a place without a lot of lights and loud sounds. Begin to take in slow, deep, relaxing breaths through your nose. As you exhale, focus your mind on relaxing your body a little more with each breath. This kind of breathing has been shown to signal to your brain that you’re calm and at ease. Each time you breathe and relax, you’ll find that you can even relax a little more with your next exhale. There’s always a little more tension in your body that you can let go of with each breath. Continue with this kind of relaxed, deep breathing all throughout this meditation. While you're focusing on this kind of breathing, let me read a verse written by the apostle Paul in… 1 Corinthians 6:19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? We often read verses like that and just move on. But meditation helps us stop and focus on the amazing reality of this truth. As you continue to breathe, meditate on this biblical truth and focus your mind on feeling the reality of this amazing truth in your body . If you’re a follower of Jesus, the Bible says you have received, from God, the Spirit of God in you. In your soul, yes, but that means also in your body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? Remember, your body is an important part of who you are. While this is certainly a mysterious reality no one fully understands, this is how God wants you to think of his connection with you. And you can think of and experience these realities through this kind of meditation. Just try to imagine now what this verse says — you’ve received God’s Spirit into you — into your body. Your body is an important part of your relationship with God. Embrace your body as part of you. In meditation, use your imagination to feel God’s Spirit in your body. This is mysterious, but it’s also real. The same Spirit who hovered over the darkness and created light in Genesis 1:2 is IN your body right now. Imagine...
A Christian Meditation with John 7:37-39
20:57 | 02-22-2022
Too often our minds get trapped living merely in the horizontal realities of life where we’re focused on our circumstances, jobs, people’s approval, chronic pain, and life’s uncertainties. And we forget the vertical realities of God’s presence and loving care and control over our circumstances and our future. In this meditation you’ll be using your biblically guided imagination to see your life and your body with these vertical realities so you can experience God’s presence and promises to you in a way that replaces stress, tension, and anxiety with a calm and confidence of God’s peace and joy and assurances. This kind of meditation/contemplation is something God’s people have been doing for thousands of years. It brings transformation by recalibrating your whole self, including your body, with the life-giving, rejuvenating inner presence of God’s Spirit. Let’s take time to do that now. But first, if your podcast app is set to skip silent sections, disable that now. Let’s begin by putting your mind and body in a disposition to be able to listen to and feel the life-giving, rejuvenating inner presence of God’s Spirit in meditation. Lie flat on your back …or sit comfortably in a chair. You might want to close your eyes so you can focus your mind better. Try to be in a place without a lot of lights and loud sounds. But wherever you are right now, just make the best of it and you can benefit from this time of meditation. Begin by taking in deep, slow breaths through your nose. Bring your mind’s awareness on feeling the fresh air coming in through your nose. And as you exhale, try to relax your body a little bit more with each breath. Sometimes it helps to Imagine your body relaxing with each exhale like slowly letting the air out of an air mattress a little more with each breath. Feel your body getting more relaxed as you let out each breath. Each slow, deep breath. Focus your mind’s awareness on feeling your whole body becoming more relaxed. It’s important to use meditation to bring your mind and body back into a oneness where you embrace your whole body as an important part of who you are eternally. That’s why you will have a bodily resurrection in your eternal salvation. Not a new body, but a transformed body without decay or sin or mortality. When you embrace your body as part of who you are, you are able to live as God intends. And you’re able to present your entire self, including the members of your body, to God’s Spirit. Focusing on breathing and relaxing the entirety of your body in meditation helps you reconnect your mind with your body. If there is a part of your body that can’t relax, that’s OK. For now, just focus on the other parts of your body than can and ignore the parts that can’t. Take some time now to bring your mind’s awareness on relaxing your whole body with each breath. Sometimes it helps to have a home base for relaxing your body. For me it’s the back of my head, down my neck to the ball at the base of my shoulders and neck, and out to the rest of my shoulders. I focus on relaxing that first and keeping that part relaxed as I then focus on the rest of my body. Maybe for you it’s another place: your gut and diaphragm. Or your eyes, cheeks, and forehead. For some it’s their feet. Try different places and see where it feels like a kind of home base for feeling relaxed. Let’s meditate on Jesus’s words in… John 7:37-39 (ESV) …“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. The apostle John whispers to his readers and says that Jesus was talking about the Spirit that those who believe him will receive. This is how Jesus inhabits our lives — by his Holy Spirit....
A Christian Meditation with Psalm 36:8-9
20:27 | 02-17-2022
Christian meditation can help refocus your mind on God's presence using biblical imagery to get the stress, anxiety, and anger out of your heart and out of your body. Take about 20 minutes to meditate with this episode. By listening to this podcast episode, you’re carving out a quiet time to be alone with God. Using meditation to recalibrate your mind and heart and even your body with the vertical reality of God’s presence and God’s promises. Using your biblically guided imagination to experience God’s presence and promises to you in a way that replaces stress and anxiety and worry and even shame with God’s peace and joy and assurances. This is something God’s people have been doing for thousands of years. Remember what Paul writes in… 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV) And we all, who … contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. A synonym for contemplate is to meditate. Biblical meditation is a focused imagination that “contemplates the LORD’s glory” (2 Cor 3:18), and brings transformation by recalibrating your whole self, including your body, with God’s Spirit. Let’s take the time to do that now. (But first, if your podcast app is set to skip silent sections, disable that now.) Biblically guided meditation gives you a quiet time with God — where you can contemplate the Lord’s glory by meditating on biblical pictures — images — of God for you to experience God in a deeper way by using your imagination in meditation. The eyes of your heart. A common image for God in the Bible is a clear, abundant stream of life-giving water. Like when God calls himself “the fountain of living waters” in Jeremiah 2:13. That’s a picture for you to set your imagination on in mediation so you see God and experience God in a deeper way. So David meditates on this, speaking of those who take refuge in the LORD… Psalms 36:8-9 (ESV) They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life… Let’s meditate using this same biblical image…picture this! Focus your mind on imagining this reality. The I AM is a river of delights — a fountain of life — that your whole self – including every cell in your body — is satisfied by. Feel this image in your body. Try to feel your whole body (every cell) bathing and drinking from the I AM who is the river of delight and fountain of life. Only God can give life-giving “living waters” to your body. Your soul. Your mind. Your whole being. Using the eyes of your heart, see this reality as true for you — picture yourself drinking in delight from the abundance of God’s fountain of life. Feel your body floating in God’s river of delight. David’s imaginative meditation is ultimately prophetic in that he gives a poetic picture of what will ultimately be true when heaven comes back to earth when Jesus returns. Revelation 7:17 (ESV) For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water… Revelation 22:1 (ESV) Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb… Psalm 46:4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. But there is a reality to this you can experience now through a kind of mental time travel — meditation is a way to feast on the abundance of God’s house. A way to drink from the river of his delights. A way to experience God now as our “fountain of life.” Because it’s true now. The I AM inhabits eternity. Who he will be for you when heaven returns to earth in Jesus is who he IS for you now by his Holy Spirit. This is a meditation on an image with a promise. Picture this — “springs of living water” — “the river of the water of life, bright as crystal,...
A Christian Meditation with Psalm 63:1
26:54 | 02-15-2022
In biblical meditation, you’re intentionally focusing your inner voice and thoughts on God’s presence and promises in your life. When you try to meditate, you’ll discover that this is hard to do. Your mind will wander into other imaginations. Other stories. This is normal. Don’t get frustrated with yourself when it happens. Just pick right back up with where we are in our meditation. By listening to this podcast episode, you’re carving out a quiet time to be alone with God. Using meditation to recalibrate your mind and heart and even your body with the vertical reality of God’s presence and God’s promises. Biblically guided meditation is using your imagination to experience God’s presence and promises to you in a way that replaces stress and anxiety and worry and even shame with God’s peace and joy and assurances. This is something God’s people have been doing for thousands of years. The apostle Paul writes in… 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV) And we all, who … contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. A synonym for contemplate is to meditate. Biblical meditation is a focused imagination that “contemplates the LORD’s glory” (2 Cor 3:18), and brings transformation by recalibrating your whole self, including your body, with God’s Spirit. One way to experience this kind of transformation is by replacing built-up tension and stress and anxiety in your mind and body with a rejuvenating and relaxing experience of God’s presence and promises. Let’s take the time to do that now. (But first, if your podcast app is set to skip silent sections, disable that now.) A common image for God in the Bible is a clear, abundant stream of life-giving water. Like when God calls himself “the fountain of living waters” in Jeremiah 2:13. That’s a picture for you to set your imagination on in mediation so you see God and experience God in a deeper way. So David meditates on this image in… Psalms 63:1 (ESV) O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. “My soul thirsts…my flesh faints for you” — in the OT your soul is your whole being, including your body. Even your body thirsts for God — “the fountain of living waters.” In David’s meditation, he is presenting his entire self — spirit, mind, and body – to God as HIS God and the only satisfaction for his thirst. Let’s meditate using this same biblical image…picture this! Let’s meditate on Jeremiah’s meditation in… Jeremiah 17:13-14 (ESV) …the LORD [is] the fountain of living water. Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved… This is a meditation on an image with a promise. Picture this. A “fountain of living water” that brings life and complete healing. Washing and bathing in God as your healing waters. Drinking from him as a pure flowing fountain. This is the I AM. Jesus uses this image of the I AM as a picture of who he is… John 4:14 NIV …Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Say quietly to yourself… “Because I have Jesus, the forever God is my God forever!” Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it. Follow Dave Cover on Twitter https://twitter.com/davecover (@davecover) Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter https://twitter.com/abiggerlifepod (@ABiggerLifePod) This podcast is a ministry of https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (The Crossing), a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.
A Christian Meditation with Psalm 46
24:19 | 02-10-2022
People today are discovering all kinds of benefits of meditation. That’s a good thing. And the Bible’s been here all along. But biblical meditation is more than simply a form of mindfulness. It’s not less than that, because it is a form of learning to focus and discipline our minds in a way that blocks out the typical chatter in our brains. This voice in our head that is constantly wandering into the past or the future in ways that typically either ruminate on past conflicts or hurts, or worry about future conflicts or troubles (this is using the power of our imagination in anxiety-building ways). And as the teachings of Jesus and the rest of the Bible repeatedly emphasize, these kinds of wandering thoughts and imaginations usually do more harm than good. They make us embittered victims and put us in a disposition of hostility and anxiety. This puts even more stress and anxiety in our bodies as well. In biblical meditation, you’re intentionally focusing your inner voice and thoughts on God's presence and promises in your life. When you try to meditate, you’ll discover that this is hard to do. Your mind will wander into other imaginations. Other stories. This is normal. Don’t get frustrated with yourself when it happens. Just pick right back up with where you are in your meditation. This is where this podcast is helpful. Try to focus your mind on what’s being said as best as you can. In this podcast episode, we’re carving out a quiet time to be alone with God. Using meditation to recalibrate your mind and heart and even your body with the vertical reality of God’s presence and God’s promises. Using your biblically guided imagination to experience God’s presence and promises to you in a way that replaces tension and stress and anxiety and worry with God’s peace and joy and assurances. This is something God’s people have been doing for thousands of years, just as we read in Psalm 119:148. Psalms 119:148 (ESV) My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise. Let’s take the time to do something like that now. (But first, if your podcast app is set to skip silent sections, disable that now.) To begin… Lie flat on your back …or sit comfortably in a chair. You might want to close your eyes so you can focus your mind better. Try to be in a place without a lot of lights and loud sounds. Jesus says in Matthew 6:6 NIV “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” It’s just you and God alone together. Jesus says he is unseen, but with you even behind closed doors alone in your room. The I AM is always infinitely present with you. Imagine you are alone with the I AM who created the entire universe! This is God’s promise to you everywhere in Scripture. Even in his very name — I AM. God’s presence is always in the present tense — always present with you fully. Let’s meditate on Psalm 46… V.1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” Focus your mind on imagining this promise. Let’s meditate on v. 7… The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Let’s meditate on one more verse, v. 10… He says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it. Follow Dave Cover on Twitter https://twitter.com/davecover (@davecover) Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter https://twitter.com/abiggerlifepod (@ABiggerLifePod) This podcast is a ministry of https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (The Crossing), a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.
A Christian Meditation with Deuteronomy 31:8
24:35 | 02-08-2022
Psalm 119:148 says, “My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise” (ESV). Biblical meditation is finding time to be alone with God. It’s using meditation to recalibrate your mind and heart and even your body with the vertical reality of God’s presence and God’s promises. Using “the eyes of your heart” — your biblically guided imagination — to experience God’s presence and promises to you in a way that replaces stress and anxiety with God’s peace and joy and confidence. This is something God’s people have been doing for thousands of years. Let’s take the time to do something like that now. (But first, if your podcast app is set to skip silent sections, disable that now.) This is a time for you to meditate and focus your thoughts and imagination on the light-giving, life-giving presence of the I AM. There'll be other times to think about things. Plan things. Do things. To fix things. You can do all that later. But put all that aside for now and focus on God being present with you right now 100% — focused on you 100% — without being any less present and any less focused anywhere else. This is God’s promise to you everywhere in Scripture. Even in his very name — I AM. God’s presence is always in the present tense — always present with you fully. Let’s meditate on God’s promise in… Deuteronomy 31:8 (NIV) The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. He is the Giver of your life. The Source of rest and peace. Shalom. Imagine God’s Spirit speaking his word in that verse to YOU — “The I AM with you. He will never leave you. He will never forsake you.” God says this in his word to his people. So imagine him saying it to you… Now imagine him saying the rest of that verse — “Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged.” Imagine every part of your being — every cell in your body — resting in that verse. Anxiety is a kind of fear. A kind of discouragement. Instead of listening to anxiety, listen to God’s promise — “I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. So do not be afraid.” The New Testament quotes that verse in Deuteronomy 31 that we just read and directly applies it to all those who believe in Jesus. Let’s meditate on a New Testament promise found in… Hebrews 13:5-6 (NIV) God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.” There’s a kind of inner confidence that comes when we decide to believe God’s word. A kind of calm even in the chaos of life because we remind ourselves we can trust that he is always present with us 100%. Nothing touches us without his presence and love and care in control of everything. Fear comes when we imagine the worst. But confidence comes when we imagine the best because we’re trusting that God is committed to our best. God promises you ultimately the best. That verse in Hebrews was also quoting… Psalms 118:6-7 (NIV) The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. …The LORD is with me; he is my helper. In all your uncertainty about your life, you can trust and rest in God’s promise to you. Say quietly to yourself… “The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. …The LORD is with me; he is my helper.” Say quietly to yourself… “Because I have Jesus, the things that matter most are not threatened. I am not in danger. I am secure forever because the forever God is my God forever.” And when you’re done, you can get up and walk with all the confidence that, because you have Jesus, the forever God is your God forever. Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it. Follow Dave Cover on Twitter https://twitter.com/davecover (@davecover) Follow A...