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...