Our Commitment to God
The most important thing to do after committing to follow Jesus is to put that commitment ahead of all other priorities in our lives. The way we demonstrate our love of God lies in the way that prayer shapes our lives. Prayer is the two-way communication between us and God, facilitated and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. This means that we must not only pray to God throughout our days and have a regular time(s) of prayer each day, we must see and hear God’s presence in our lives. We have to know His voice in our minds, the “gentle whisper” that Elijah heard on the mountain (1 Kings 19:12). I find that He makes suggestions throughout my day that I am to follow; sometimes I just see a picture in my mind that indicates what I am to do next, or some friend of mind recommends something that resonates in me. Sometimes He has also spoken loud and clear in my mind like this example: “How can I say I love God if I can’t love my mother?” The most important thing for us is to recognize His voice among our much louder thoughts and to so what He suggests.
Our prayer commitments are important, too. Not just petitions for us and the people we care about in our circle of friends and family and in the church, we need to sit in stillness that Psalm 46:10 recommends: “Be still and know that I am God!” Centering Prayer[1] is a good form of meditation as well as others. It is in the stillness that we learn how to deal with our restless minds and the often-repetitive thoughts they offer when we are trying to “be still and know.” The only way I have discovered that works when these thoughts appear is this: become an observer of these thoughts. Often, they have been with us all our lives from early childhood on. We can identify the source of some of them, our parents or other relatives, teachers, or friends. When we just allow them to be in our minds and don’t fight them, when we smile or mentally wave at them when they appear, they cease to bother our meditative state of mind. We can go right back to our still state of mind.
As we practice meditation daily, ideally for ½ hour to an hour, we are quieting our minds so that we can hear the Lord speak to us when it happens. Along with the suggestions He makes throughout our days and the other ways He communicates with us, we are held in His arms, led toour purpose in this lifetime, to the fulfillment of our lives, to living out of the fruit of the Spirit: love, peace, joy, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and humility (Galatians 5:22-23). Our lives become so satisfying and adapted to the depths of who we are, free of the world and its influence at last! Thanks be to God!
_________________________________________________________________
Announcement: This is the last post I will make on deepeningyourfaith.com. I am retiring this month from blogging both here and at patsaidadams.com. At both websites you will be able to access all the posts by theme by the end of this year. Thank you so much for your interest in what I have written and your willingness to follow Jesus. With love and blessings, Pat Adams
[1] https://www.contemplative.org/contemplative-practice/centering-prayer/