Tag Archives: prayer

Lent Day 5 – Meditating

21 Sunday Feb 2021

Posted by in Lent

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“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give
you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the
road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the
doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” — Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Have you ever experienced a really difficult situation? Sure you have! No one skates through life without difficulty from time to time. So how did you cope? Where do you turn when life begins to feel overwhelming?

There are many ways people deal with life. Some use unhealthy behavior like drug or alcohol abuse, inappropriate relationships, food, or other excessive actions. Some people cope by reaching out to friends or family, seeing a therapist, talking with a pastor. Something that is overlooked is meditation. I’m not talking about meditation as a form of avoidance or temporary relaxation technique. I’m talking about finding that quiet place to absorb the word of God. Pastor Richard Foster writes, “Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind.”(1)

God often uses our meditation on his Word in Scripture to speak to us, encouraging us as we endure difficult situations, reminding us through his Word of his faithfulness and love, giving us hope for what is ahead. Reflecting on the Word is not simply for getting us through tough circumstances either. Meditating on God’s Word helps us to live continually in response to the living Word, Jesus Christ.


Here are a few suggested practices of meditating on God’s Word. As a reminder, we shouldn’t feel like we need to try all of the practices. Ultimately it is not about the practices, but about letting God do his work in growing our faith, hope and love as we focus on him and live in response to who he is and what he has done.

  • Memorization: Select a short passage to memorize. Allow the words to ruminate within you as you go throughout the day, repeating it several times to yourself. I’ve always struggled with this one but there are certain verses which I cling to and am thankful I can pull the words that have been embedded on my heart.
  • Pick a passage to read over or listen to several times. After the first reading, read it through again slowly, listening or watching for any words or phrases that stand out. Take note of the word or phrase and then read through the passage for a third time. How is God calling you to respond to his Word?
  • Verse-mapping: take a verse and map it out like you were taught in middle school English. Here’s a good place to start. https://kristycambron.com/verse-mapping-101-steps-to-study-the-bible-like-never-before/
  • As you read through Scripture, jot something down that stood out to you and consider reflecting on it with someone else this week. What is God placing upon your heart through His word as you begin the first full week of Lent? If you’re honest with yourself, He’s probably calling you to come out of that comfort zone of lukewarmness.

    (1) Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, 17.

It’s A Long Story…

10 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by in My Story. My Faith.

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Holy God, I know YOU are the God hope. Yet, in this moment I do not feel filled with the joy and peace YOU offer to me. In this moment hope is distant in my heart. Right now, Holy God, I cry out and acknowledge that I need YOU. I need YOUR hope in my heart and I need YOUR filling. Please help me to do my part to trust YOU. Help me to trust YOU to give me the hope and the joy and the peace that your Holy Spirit brings. Increase my faith so that I can trust YOU fully with all the question marks in my life. FIll me by the power of YOUR Holy Spirit now. I don’t want to just survive or just get by… I want to overflow! YOUR Holy Spirit is the only one who has the power to pour the peace and joy YOU offer into my weary soul. I trust YOU today with all the circumstances of my life. Thank you that I can come to YOU, my God of Hope! Thank you that YOU offer peace to my heart. It is YOUR gift to me and I desperately need it.


Life is filled with so many distractions and disappointments that often rob me of that peace. Your word says that YOU will keep my heart in peace as I trust in YOU for strength and discernment and wisdom in every area of my life. Active, conscious trusting keeps my thoughts focused on YOU. Thank you that YOUR peace will be the result! Holy God, please help me today to focus on YOU in all the details of my life, inviting YOU into each circumstance, conversation and activity. Grow my trust in YOU. Keep me today in YOUR perfect peace for I have very little of my own. In YOU I place my trust today! Amen.

That prayer was written by a dear friend of mine, Deb Webb. She wrote it several months ago and I have it hanging on my wall. I haven’t read it in awhile but today it caught my eye. As I read it, I realized that I was breathing every single word of that prayer. My shoulders dropped and my eyes filled up – I had allowed life to rob me of God’s joy and peace. How in the world had this happened?

If you haven’t been following my posts on Facebook, allow me to fill you in. 2013 was a pretty rotten year. 2012 wasn’t great either but 2013 was one for the record books. My husband lost his medical license for an undetermined amount of time. This led to him closing his practice. I took a job at a mental health facility that turned out to be less then ideal but another business wooed me away. Unfortunately, my salary as a counselor could not sustain us in our former lifestyle. We ended up losing our home, our two cars, other possessions and downsized to a historic rental home. Luckily the owners of the home are friends of ours so they made the transition much smoother then it could have been. My husband was not able to find a full-time job because no one would hire a doctor – over qualified was the common response. Things became tighter and tighter. In December, he became very sick. It started as the flu then into pneumonia. Finally he was admitted to the hospital where he almost died and ended up spending 17 days – 15 in the ICU! When you end up friending your nurses on Facebook, you know you have been there too long. (As a side note – the Lourdes Hospital ICU nurses and other staff are priceless). After finally getting well enough to come home (on oxygen), I find out that I’m losing my job…. in two days! That is definitely the cliff note version but you get the point. It was a rotten year. This year has not started much better. All of this leads me back to that prayer. I have lost the joy and peace that God has given me. I think it’s time that I find it.

Today, I began packing up my office. I realized that I really hate boxes. I used to love boxes because that meant that I was moving. Moving represented new opportunities. New surroundings. Excitement. But now all that is gone. Now, boxes represent another chapter that has closed. I don’t want to close anymore chapters in my life. Not right now. I want to continue in my story with a dull, boring storyline about nothing at all. But instead, I’m packing yet again. Only this time I have no idea where I’m moving to. Yes, I hate boxes. Now, if I were wearing the mask that I used to wear, I would be saying something about God opening an even better door and not looking back..blah blah blah. But I took that mask off two years ago and will not put it back on. I’m sad. Period.

So many people over the past month in particular have reached out to me regarding my posts on Facebook. I have had people I do not even know contact me to offer me words of prayer and love. They have prayed for my husband and his health. They have prayed for his career to be returned to him. They have prayed for strength for all of us. I’m quite certain that those prayers are what carry us both through each and every day. We have a son who is beyond amazing. As many changes as that child has experienced, he never complains or acts out. He just shows compassion and love. He’s kind of amazing, like I said. For him, I am determined to show little sadness. But in the stillness of the night, as I sit here listening to the rhythm of my husband’s breathing, I allow myself to feel all the emotions that are lurking inside. I feel every question mark in my life and the lack of answers can be suffocating. So now I turn to this prayer. I turn to the words that so accurately address all that I am feeling. I realize that if I’m feeling it, God is too. I tell my clients that tears are God’s salve. I really do believe that. So I allow them to fall and hopefully pour some peace into my weary soul. I know that God has not caused any of the heartache we have felt. He doesn’t hurt us or punish us. But He does allow us to experience pain so that we will fully acknowledge the He alone can heal that pain. Honestly, I have no idea what tomorrow is going to bring. I know it will be difficult as I say good-bye to folks I genuinely love and adore. But I will hold up my head as I close that chapter and wait anxiously for the next adventure in this crazy story called “My Life.”

…Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or, whine, Israel, saying, “ God has lost track of me. He doesn’t care what happens to me”? Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening? God doesn’t come and go. God lasts. He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine. He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath. And he knows everything, inside and out. He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts. For even young people tire and drop out, young folk in their prime stumble and fall. But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, They run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind. (Isaiah 40:27-31 MSG).

In Flesh We Trust?

23 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by in My Story. My Faith.

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“‘Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles.’ And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah the king of Judah said.” 2 Chronicles 32:7-8 (NIV)

Gosh, I wish I were strong. I have often thought what it would be like to be strong, both physically and emotionally. I wouldn’t have to ask people for help all of the time. I see other women who are physically fit and I get a bit down. I listen to women with stories of courage and survival and I think I would have folded in such a situation. I know we are not supposed to compare ourselves to others but it is so easy to do that. It’s easy to just allow that little voice in the back of my mind to speak words of discouragement. Why is that? Why are those voices always so much clearer and impactful then positive words? Why do we allow ourselves to be chained to such negativity when we are made in the image of such a glorious God?

But these thoughts are true for my life – and probably for many of you, too. It is so much easier to focus on my weaknesses and inconsistencies then the positives. For most of my life, I’ve battled this. From the time I was a little girl I have felt just a bit inadequate. Just a bit on the outside looking in. These feelings frustrate me. I wear a mask of securities and find myself shrinking on the inside. I can lead someone to Christ for their healing but not depend on him for my own weaknesses in areas like over-eating or depression. Frustrating, isn’t it? Can you relate?

The other day I read 2 Chronicles 32: 7-8. It made me stop. How had I missed this story? It was like I was reading it for the first time. “Be strong and courageous.” I have heard that part of the verse many many times. But it is the rest of it that caused my heart to jump. “…there is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is The Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” Oh my goodness!! “A greater power with us..!!” Do you realize what this is saying? I don’t have to focus on my weaknesses, even if others do. I am strong because God is within me! And you! I am ashamed to say that I completely forget that at times. I forget that God doesn’t pick or choose when He gives us strength. Nope. If we aren’t feeling His strength, it’s because we CHOOSE not to accept it. He gives it freely, all day every day! Did you hear that? God never leaves us. We leave Him. I’m ashamed to say that at times when things are most overwhelming, I try to rely on my own humanness instead of reaching for my Lord. Why do we do that? Why do we not scream out to God? There is no reason for any us to ever feel week or hopeless. And yet, don’t we all feel that way from time to time? Don’t we all feel inadequate and unsure of ourselves in certain situations? If you are like me, then the answer is yes.

Jeremiah 17:7 (NIV) says, “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.” I think that is the essence of my problem. I don’t always have the confidence I am supposed to have in God. I fear that He will forget about me so I have to do it myself. But He doesn’t work like that. He will be there as long as I seek Him. I have to learn to stop depending on my “flesh” as Hezekiah said, and rely completely on Him. My confidence in God is stronger then it was but not where it should be yet. What I can attest to is that for all the times I have completely submitted to God, I have experienced a source of strength and perseverance that I never could have experienced relying on my own flesh.

As you apply this to your life, ask yourself this question: How would your life be changed if you believed that God’s strength was living in you everyday, all day?

Lord, please forgive me for relying on my own flesh and humanness instead of solely on You. You have guaranteed your strength and grace through the spilled blood of Jesus Christ. Thank you for never leaving me even when I leave you. Convict my heart to never leave you again. Amen.