Today's Pondering

May the words of my mouth
    and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing to you,
    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalm 19:14 

 

I downloaded an app, recently, to help me meditate.  What I discovered was that the app was simply a recording of a stream.  While that may sound silly, the sound of water is usually a relaxing sound.  People use this to meditate, to sleep, to focus, to relax and to concentrate.  You see, the sound of water is one of God's great gifts which we seem to have forgotten.

 

With me so far?  Now let's add another point to ponder.  In the deepest part of our soul lies the place where our true connection with God resides.  It is where the Spirit speaks to God on our behalf with groanings beyond words (Romans 8:26).  These groanings are like the sound of the stream in our souls, they are our ongoing murmurings.  

 

Now consider today's verse: The word used for "meditation" is a musical term which denotes the deep sounds of an instrument that we normally cannot detect unless they are missing or a wrong note is played.  What happens when a stream gets clogged?  The sound changes! 

 

If we focus on what our inner stream of groanings is sharing, what is God hearing from us?  If we are pretending to be happy and joyful, yet we are seething with hurt, anger and frustration, which do you think God hears?  Here's a hint: God always hears TRUTH!  

 

This was brought home very clearly recently during my quiet time.  No matter how hard I tried, I could not get focused.  No matter how long I prayed, my prayers seemed to fall flat.  Finally, I asked God for help and He showed me that I was angry and frustrated with some people who, I believe, wished me ill.  I was reminded that God will deal with them when I let Him have my anger and frustration (which meant I had to turn loose of it completely). My heart and soul had been meditating (murmuring) against those folks, and God reminded me that I needed to focus on Him and His love for me and let Him deal with the rest.

 

This morning, my time of meditation was VERY different!  Let go of the troubles and focus on the only One who can deal with them.