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...