Isaiah 12:6  Let all the people of Jerusalem shout his praise with joy! For great is the Holy One of Israel who lives among us. 

God is with you and me in this moment. He sits beside us ready to hold a hand if you reach for him. We all struggle with the ways of perception this world puts in front of us. I believe that just as I have been inspired to write these words, you have come to them because God has lead you here. I know struggle.It may not be the exact same struggle you are facing in this moment, but I assure you that I too have struggled. I could tell you the story of growing up with a drug addicted father who hit my mother. I can share how I have dealt with the fear of abandonment. I could go into details of how the father I barely knew passed away from cancer at the age of forty-seven. I can tell you about the whole I felt in my heart for years because of his death. Yes, I could share pages and chapters about my struggles. Today I am not here for that. I am writing to take you along as I journey. I am on a shift of who I know I am, to who is my higher self. I step forward in order to know the God of Israel who lives among us. I started briefly before this moment, not only by everything I learned through each struggle, but also through discovering the tool of meditation. Yes, I used to be so scatter-brained with the this and that of daily life. I discovered however that when you focus on the ability to be still, you can find clarity. Every time I meditate, I think of being still to know God. I know too often meditation is viewed as an eastern philosophy. However, I find truth in knowing meditation is not a philosophy at all. Rather it is a tool. It has been mostly practiced among buddhists, and these days by new age practitioners. Yet, I have come to view the practice of meditation as a way to hear God more clearly. The best metaphor I ever heard about hearing God is this…. God’s voice is like that of a radio wave. It is out there even though we can not see it. We are the clock radio, the receive, and like a radio we have an antenna. Sometimes our antenna may be bent, so we do not hear the radio frequency so clearly. Have you ever experience picking up two radio stations at the same time? Our receiving end of the radio can do this too. If we only straighten our antenna, or point it in a new direction…..then we can start picking up the signal God is sending to us. It sometimes takes a tool to straighten the antenna. For me that tool has been meditation. Unlike the eastern practice of meditation I don’t look within myself, instead I look for God in the stillness. We can both find him there among us.

I challenge you to take fifteen minutes a day to “Be still and Know God”. I promise you whatever struggle you are facing now, God will guide you through. He’s GOOD like that. God will fill you with peace if you are still enough, and open enough to feel his love. I encourage you to also ask yourself “Do I believe stillness can bring me peace?”  Then give thanks for the tool of meditation. And read the rest of Isaiah 12.

Meditation Tip: I usually will play praise and worship music (or it can be a calming noise or piece of classical music), whatever you find the most relaxing. The point is to stand in stillness. I will concentrate on my breathe at first like most eastern practices suggest. This is only to quiet my mind, get out the noise of the world. The difference then is when I concentrate on God’s love and allow it to fill me with each breath. I find the peace, and listen.