Christian Meditation is a quiet time for you to re-integrate and re-calibrate your mind with your body. And re-integrate and re-calibrate your mind and body with God‘s presence with you and in you. Remember the quote from the apostle Paul in Acts 17:28 – In him you live and move and have your being.If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.
Remember the reality of what’s called neural plasticity – your brain is always rewiring itself constantly based upon how you use it — what you see, what you say, what you do, what you think and feel — neurons that fire together wire together — so if certain neurons have fired together a lot then they have wired together a lot and made what’s like a worn path in the snow where your brain gets really good at something that you repeat a lot — like playing the piano or playing guitar or typing on a keyboard — like we discussed in the last episode — sometimes your brain gets really good at feeling pain in a part of your body even though there’s no longer damage or harm there, or sometimes your brain gets really good at responding with anxiety or insecurity or fear or anger in certain situations or feeling threatened in certain situations because you have trained your brain through repeatedly responding that way in those situations. So certain kinds of meditation or mindfulness are a way of remapping your brain to your whole body to help it re-integrate and re-calibrate to your mind and soul. So when you focus on specific areas of your body you are remapping your brain to your body. And when you focus on relaxing and feeling (becoming aware of) your entire body like we do in this kind of meditation, every brain and pain specialist and psychologist I’ve read says it is calming and even resetting to your central nervous system. But in Christian meditation we go even further than that and also focus on experiencing, through our imagination, the reality of God‘s presence in your body as the Bible emphasizes in so many places. Remember — neurons that fire together wire together — and so your brain will get really good at remembering to feel your body and associating that also with remembering God‘s presence in your body and presence with you always. So that in times where you might usually feel threatened or typically get anxious or angry or stressed – doing a quick meditation to feel your body will also associate in your brain a remembrance of God‘s presence in you and his love and control in every situation. So in typical situations where you would normally worry or become anxious or insecure or angry or frustrated or even hopeless, instead you are reminded that God is present, he is in this, and you can trust him.
Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it. Follow Dave Cover on Twitter @davecoverFollow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePodOur audio engineer is Diego Huaman.This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.