"Be still, and know that I am God; I [God] will be exalted among the nations, I [God] will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10
I mentioned in my last post that this was my 'life verse:' the verse I will go to when I need a reality check on living life. Psalm 46:10 seems to frame a lot of the struggles that I have in my life.
For example, one of the spiritual disciplines that I practice in my life is meditation coupled with prayer (in short terms, I have a devotional time everyday). My devotional time is meant to be a time for me to focus my mind on what truly matters in this world: Christ and giving everything (and I mean everything) to Him: my hopes, my dreams, my worries, my to-do lists, my feelings, etc.... So I will sit down in my recliner and first take some time to quiet down my mind and focus on an image: currenlty it is a picture of a cross. I will then take some time to just pray to God about who God is: He is Alpha, Omega, Beginning and End, etc...and I will offer a prayer to the tune of "God, I love you and trust you with my life." Then, after I have focused my mind on the One who is always focused on me, I will God's Word (currently I am reading out of the book of Luke). After I am done reading, I will first pray about what I have read: what challenged me, what new thing did I learn, how did God's Word make me feel today, etc...and then take some time to pray for those on my prayer list: family, friends, church family, etc... After that, I end with praying The Lord's Prayer and then simply say Amen.
Now, that all might seem too simple or too complicated depending on who you are. Either way, and think about this (Something To Think About) : "Is having this kind of daily devotional time too hard or too easy?"
Lets through the wrench into your thoughts: consider this...
I went through a time when I was trying out a different devotional time during the day. You see, I usually have my devotional time in the morning, but I went through a period when I tried to have my devotions in evening instead. (Simply stated: having my devotions in the evening didn't work, but if having your devotions in the evening works for you: then great. All I'm saying is that it was not for me.) So when I changed my devotion time and found out it didn't work, it ended up being hard to change it back. (I am now pleased to report that I am back to my regular devotional time and that things are going well.)
What I am getting at is that all of the various spiritual disciplines are great, but one can get tied to the routine of the discipline instead of the reason for the routine. You catch my drift?
I love the first part of Psalm 46:10 (the 'being still' part), but I missed the last part "[God] is exalted among the nations and [God] is exalted in the earth. IT'S ALL ABOUT GOD!!!!
Our struggle with spiritual disciplines and their easyness or hardness is not about wether they are too hard or too easy: the struggle is found in our willingness to say that the spiritual discipline is about finding God.
