"MEDITATION IS LIKE an explosion inside: you loose the bounds of this earth and get into the realms of heaven - it's just so big and you just get to see a bit of it. He has shown me concepts I would never have understood myself; it's mind blowing. I meditate and then think 'Why the heck don't I do this more often?' "
"One purpose of meditation should be to focus the inner eye on the unchanging reality of God beneath and within the impermanence of the world. Such fixing of the heart on the unchanging God, whose love undergirds all reality, changes our perspective on life.
"To look with love upon the unchanging God accustoms us to seeing people and this transient life in a different way. Perhaps it helps us to see reality as God sees it, from His perspective; which is the true perspective.
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"Satan dreads nothing but prayer... The Church that lost its Christ was full of good works. Activities are multiplied that meditation may be ousted, and organizations are increased that prayer may have no chance. Souls may be lost in good works, as surely as in evil ways. The one concern of the devil is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray."
Samuel Chadwick
"Every promise of Scripture is a writing of God, which may be pleaded before Him with this reasonable request: 'Do as You have said.' The Creator will not cheat His creature who depends upon His truth; and, far more, the Heavenly Father will not break His word to His own child. 'Remember the word unto your servant, on which You have caused me to hope,' is most prevalent pleading. It is a double argument: It is Your Word, will you not keep it? Why have You spoken of it if You will not make it good? You have caused me to hope in it; will You disappoint the hope which You have Yourself begotten in me?"
C. H. Spurgeon
"What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations
or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use - men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men - men of prayer."
E. M. Bounds
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"The recognition that we are held - despite our experience of change and the storms of sin - in the arms of unfailing love is transformative. In meditation, the awareness of this reality develops.
"As Julian of Norwich put it (Christ speaking), 'My dear darling, I am glad you are come to Me in all your woe. I have ever been with you, and now you see My loving, and we be one'd in bliss.' "
"Meditation is being close to God and really free and pondering things. You get more relaxed in yourself and get more into praying...
"Like the advert says about Red Bull - 'it gives you wings' - but it's 110 times better than that - it's like heaven living inside you."
"I go somewhere quiet or where I can be alone so there are no distractions, turn off my phone, get in a comfortable position, sitting relaxed, not scrunched up or tense.
"I start to breathe in a slow regular way - breathing in for a count of four, holding for a count of two (or four), breathing out for a count of four. I have paper and pen ready to write down any "unhelpful thoughts" that may come to mind - what may be worrying me or maybe something I've just remembered to do so I can attend to them later. This helps clear my mind.
"Once my breathing is regular, I find a scripture to think about - keeping it in step with the breathing - for example, 'God is spirit, and His worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth'. It needs to be long enough to be part of the 'breathe in for four' pattern.
"A picture may come to mind or I might start to think about the words I'm 'speaking' and let God talk to me about that.
"I've often found that everything around seems to stop when I meditate in this way; it becomes silent all around - the boiler stops roaring, the traffic stops, or even the birds stop singing. It's as though, because God is in charge, all must bow the knee to His presence."
"I try to stop long enough to let the 'holy hot water' filter through the teabag of teaching that's in my head."
"I think meditation is about getting mentally engaged with the spiritual, or, to put it more simply, listening to the Holy Spirit… I still believe that for me silence is often the way into God's presence. Twenty minutes of silence really enhances the ability to receive God's thoughts."
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