Category Archives: SILENT SACRED SPACE Series (Prayer & Meditation)

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That Secret Place, Part 2 of 3

This is a continuance from Part 1 on “That Secret Place: Time Alone with God in Silent Sacred Space: Awaken Your Spiritual Life to Close Relationship with God.”

Prayer, Meditation & Contemplation

A contemplative approach to spirituality is not the norm for most regular church-attenders. The term itself may confuse. You may envision some form of transcendental meditation. The practice of meditating in the silence is not TM. This is a spiritual discipline undertaken to grow closer to God and live an authentic spiritual life.

To those with concerns, who believe practicing a meditative approach to spirituality is contrary or adding on to God’s Word–by elevating personal experience as equal in value to the inspired biblical text–I assure you, that is not the case.  We guard the fidelity with which we approach and interpret scripture. 

What is true, however, is that biblical-based meditation has a place at the table. Some of the ancients understood this. They partook of what God offers as they sought God to know and follow Him. Some in the faith community seek to know God in this way.

Some are less likely to embrace contemplative Christianity or anything that resembles the mystical side of religious experience. We, and I say, we–for I was taught and hold most of these same beliefs and religious leanings–have been cautious or suspicious of any spiritual teachings too experiential-based. There is reason for this concern.

Christianity’s foundation rests in truth as in what is absolute truth. What is true about God, Christ, and the validity of God’s Word form this foundation. As Christians, we strive to be faithful to the teachings of Christ, God, the Spirit, and the holy scriptures. 

God’s Word shows us how to live through its message, theology, and redemptive story. Our personal experiences related to our spiritual beliefs dovetail in sync with biblical edification, spiritual growth, and godly transformation. Serious followers of God don’t want to stray from rightly dividing the Word of God.

Meditating on scripture doesn’t take away from, rather, it adds to. Those of you who are familiar with Jesus Calling and its sister books like Jesus Always, know what meditating produces. Sarah Young’s books are examples of personal recordings of thoughts God gives during her times alone with Him. They align with scripture and are true to God and His Word. They “add on,” in that they minister to the heart in a personal way.

That Secret Place shows how to draw close to God in this same way.

More later.

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Photo by Victoria Bilsborough, Unsplash

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That Secret Place, Part 1 of 3

This is Part 1 of an introduction to a soon-to-be book, Lord willing, THAT SECRET PLACE: Time Alone with God in Silent Sacred Space: Awaken Your Spiritual Life to Close Relationship with God.

Woe or Weal?

“He will rejoice over you with singing.” -Zephaniah 3:17

GOD IS IN CONTROL and we are not. Like clay being molded by the potter on the potter’s wheel, God is shaping us into the people we were always meant to be. That is a good thing. We do not anticipate where our spiritual journey will take us nor the ways in which God will teach or interrupt us.

God has a way of stripping away much of what we think is important, gets our attention, then gets down to the business of doing it. He is a good God. Thanks for the reminder. Problem is, we are not liking it much. But He has our attention. Then God goes about rebuilding our lives from the ground up.

Thus, God begins a new work in us.

I am a simple messenger with a bigger-than-me sized message. A beauty is present in the gifts God offers to those who desire to seek Him to know Him. Spiritual joys come in that secret place. For greater-than-me sized reasons, I am both focused and driven to share with others in the faith community what I have learned.

God wants to be known.

We, as God’s beloved, can know our Beloved in intimate relationship. This is a journey of many steps, of many emotions, of many long hours, of many tears and of many joys. Any who make this journey will enter as child and exit as a child, but the child will know wonder, know healing, know joy, know peace, know contentment, and by journey’s end, will know faith of the richest kind.

Each step is both beautiful and painful, like how joy and happiness are noticed and appreciated after angst and suffering. A diamond’s brilliance is released through precision cuts to the stone, exacted to reveal its spectacular beauty. So it is with us. God creates masterpieces. We get to be part of that.

Adversity and joys are intertwined in this process of becoming free and whole. We are diamonds in the rough. God’s refining, defining, and shining Life is at work in us at His table of grace.  We emerge a different, lovelier person that we were before we got to know Him on this journey of journeys that is transforming our life.

Getting there is a process one can’t quite define, but it is authentic.

My joy is in God and my satisfaction is in my relationship with Him. True joy and happiness originate in the Beloved as He imparts life-giving Substance to our lives. Those who go through what my former pastor termed, a “crucifixion experience,”–where they die to self and come alive to God–are no longer the same as they were before.

They have met with Jesus.

Take a moment and let that sink in. They have met with Jesus. They met Jesus. They were shaken, changed, and made fully alive. They emerge awakened, transformed, and humbled. Soon they come to realize their steps are being redirected by God. They are now on a new path.

Such was true for me. I knew the crushing and brokenness and discouragement. And I knew and experienced the flip side; the reviving, and healing, and renewing, and joining, and rejoicing. I can never be as I used to be. I am forever changed. God has been teaching, healing, and refining me ever since. The gain is worth the pain.

God met me where I was at, showed me He was in it, and changed my life.

You can meet with God.

Being alone with God in times set aside to seek Him with heart, mind, and soul, begins an insightful journey to greater spiritual awareness and tender closeness with God. I sought God. He responded. My journey opened a path into the divine mystery of “God with us.” This book came into being because of my times in the stillness alone with God

Welcome to that secret place.

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