Every living person can take great comfort in the reality that our God doesn’t need any help from anyone to be who He is. In Revelation 1:8, He tells us that He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. We must constantly remind ourselves of His power, intelligence, and most importantly, His love. This reminder is important because life for many people has become increasingly stressful, and instead of looking to God in faith, they have tried to manage on their own. This is never a good plan for navigating the rocky terrain of life. God created us to be in partnership with Him. He wants us to be stable and have faith in Him through Christ so that we are open to love and to receive love, then His love can flow through us to others. When we’re boggled down by the pressures of life, our guard goes up and something within us becomes blocked. The aid of our imagination and God’s direction can help us get back into His flow.
Meditation and Imagination
One of the things that is blocked inside by the stresses and worries of today is our imagination. Children are very blessed with youthful wonder, and they have great imaginations. Nothing is too big or outlandish, and it is this childlike humility that Jesus Christ refers to in Matthew 18:4. It’s having faith that nothing is too big for our God, and we can come to Him with anything that is on our hearts. Imagination is the ability to form new ideas and images in our minds without them actually being present. God has given us imagination as a tool to engage the resources of His Kingdom through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Heavenly Father tells us in Ephesians 4:23 to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. We are to make our minds new by changing the way we think so that the way we think lines up with the way Jesus Christ thinks. This allows us to know that a huge component of becoming the person God has called us to be has to do with our thoughts. Through the psalmist, in Psalm 119:18-19, God tells us to meditate on His precepts and contemplate His ways. We are to delight ourselves in His Word and not forget it. To meditate on His precepts is to meditate on His instruction and direction. He provides this through His Word and through the Spirit that guides us from within. Part of delighting ourselves in His Word is to trust the promises He makes. We can do this by envisioning the greatest dream God holds for us and then begin to meditate on this dream continually.
With all the things happening around us, it is easy to give the stress, fear, and anxiety more focus than we do our faith in the Lord. This is a temptation for many, because we’ve learned as adults to switch off the imagination trajectory of where God’s goodness can take us. We must switch this back on by daring to dream and meditating on the promises that support it. God tells us in Psalm 46:10(NKJV), “Be still, and know that I am God.” This stillness is achieved in meditation through Christ. It is when we take the time to quiet our minds and focus only on God and what He has accomplished for us through His Son. Seeing our Savior’s face through the eyes of our imagination creates a space for him to inhabit our hearts and minds and pull us deeper into God’s peace.
Direction
Through the Apostle Paul, God tells us in Galatians 5:16 to walk by the Spirit, and we won’t gratify the desires of the flesh. In John 16:13(NLT), Jesus Christ said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.” And Romans 8:14 says that everyone that is led by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God. So, we can see with crystal clarity that the Spirit’s guidance is paramount to living a successful life as a believer in Jesus Christ.
Our responsibility as believers is to allow ourselves to be led. When we turn our attention to God and place our faith in Him, He will speak to us. Sometimes this isn’t in audible words, but through a knowing that occurs when we quiet ourselves. When we’re consumed with worry, this information is often blocked, because we won’t allow it to get to our consciousness. We must remember that God’s voice is gentle, and because of this, some of us make the mistake of dismissing the guidance and instruction that He communicates through the Spirit. We must be willing to meet Him in this place of gentleness and ease, a place where we are still, and our faith is covered in adoration and gratitude towards Him.
God is the One that leads, not us. He’s waiting for us to be attentive, to pause and say, “I will listen for His voice, and move only when I hear it.” As we continue to mediate on God and His goodness daily, our recognition of His voice will sharpen, and we’ll develop an acumen that unfolds a beautiful and spiritual dialogue with Him. This way of communicating isn’t always the same for every believer. It’s intimacy in our individual relationships with God, and this is what He wants. He has given us the tools of meditation, imagination, and direction to guide us through our partnership with Him. These three will aid us in fulfilling His purpose and enjoying a rich and satisfying life that is tailored to our unique spiritual walk in Christ.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Please forgive me for the things I have done that were contrary to Your Will. And please forgive me, Father, for not inviting You to intercede in the small matters in my life. Sometimes, I take the reins, and I proceed to make decisions and choices without consulting You. I have done this for so long with certain things, that it has become a habit in some areas of my life. When I didn’t know better, I thought that You didn’t want to be bothered with such details. Many people think that they are supposed to handle stuff on their own, and only pray and seek You when things become unmanageable. This does not line up with Your Word. You tell us in Philippians 4:6 that we shouldn’t worry about anything, and we should pray about everything. You desire to be involved in every detail of our lives. Please open my eyes to be more attentive to this. Help me to break the habit of partitioning my life into things I handle and things You handle. I am committed to giving You my whole life and walking in the Spirit in every area.
Thank You that through Jesus Christ, we can stay strong regardless of any adversity or obstacles. Thank You for supplying all our needs through him. Please continue to give us Your divine guidance and council during this time of uncertainty and keep us safe. Thank You for being our Provider and Protector, thank You for the Holy Spirit that indwells us, and thank You for keeping Your angels encamped around us. Thank You, Father, for being the Almighty, All-powerful God that You are.
In the precious name of your Son, Christ Jesus, I pray. Amen.