Today I want to share something that is a little bit hard to explain. It is one of those things that you can read about or hear someone speak about, but can be hard to understand until you personally experience it.
The good news, however, is that what I am going to share is possible for every person to experience.
We live in an age that is highly stressful and I often have people ask me how they can find more peace. Sometimes people tell me they have tried meditation but it doesn’t seem to help them, at least not in a lasting way.
I understand this because many years ago when I was running my own business, I remember a time feeling incredibly stressed. I had not discovered God Centred Meditation back then and so I didn’t know how to find relief from the stress and pressure I was feeling.
I once heard someone say that when you feel like this you should stop and close your eyes and take 10 deep breaths to calm yourself. So I tried it – but after my 10 deep breaths I did not feel any different. I still felt stressed and pressured. Clearly, it did not work for me.
So when I tell people the way to live a peace-filled life is through connecting with God and His Holy Spirit and by spending time with Him in meditation, I can understand the reason why some people tell me that they tried it but still feel stressed, pressured and overwhelmed.
I have since discovered, and would like to share with you, one of the most powerful tools we have when connecting with God in meditation that will totally lift any burden and leave you with an overwhelming sense of peace in your spirit.
I call it the “Power of Letting Go”. It sounds like a cliché but it is an incredibly powerful and much overlooked key that will revolutionise your meditation time with God, and your life.
As I said at the beginning, this is something that is hard to grasp the power of until you have experienced it.
This is something where you might understand the concept in your mind, but that is not enough. If you only understand with your mind, then your experience will probably be one of “I tried that but it didn’t really work for me”.
This is something you must experience in your spirit. You need to be determined to push through in your spirit until you experience the reality of this. Today I hope to be able to share the way to do this.
When I begin my time of meditation, I spend some time stilling my mind, calming and settling my spirit to get in the “God zone”; the place where I sense that my spirit has made a connection with God’s Spirit.
I often do this by starting with a time of praise, thanksgiving and worship. This really helps to settle my spirit and focus my heart on God. I also like to memorise Bible verses. I find as I memorise the verses line by line, they begin to sink into my spirit and again this calms my mind and helps me settle into the “God zone”.
All of this may only take a few minutes or some days it may take longer.
Then as part of the process of zoning into God and settling my mind and spirit, I begin to Let Go.
I imagine that all of the stress, cares and worries that are weighing me down begin to fall off me. I imagine them dropping off me and falling away from me. I imagine them disappearing in to a sea of forgetfulness, never to return.
I imagine myself opening up my hands and releasing all the things that I am holding tightly, such as a problem or a situation that I am worried or anxious about and desperately hoping for an answer. Just like you would open up your hands to release a bird into the air, I release all the things that I am holding on to and I give them to God.
There are some things in life, however, that are so powerful that they try to take a hold of us and no matter how hard we try, it seems impossible to let it go. When I feel that something has got a hold of me and I am not finding it easy to release or find peace, I will envisage myself taking hold of those things and lifting them off from around my neck and I see myself laying them at the feet of Jesus.
This might sound a bit airy-fairy to you or maybe a bit like new-age visualization but it is neither of those things.
Hebrews 12:1 says “…let us throw off everything that hinders…”
This is an incredibly powerful, but often overlooked, scripture. We need to throw off every thing that hinders us; every thought, every worry, every care, every concern, every problem, every single thing that weighs us down.
We have to throw it off, release it and let it go because it is only in this complete state of release that we can truly see Jesus.
When we get to the point where we can let everything else go and nothing else matters more than being able to see Jesus and being able to say to God that “truly nothing else matters but you Lord”, then peace comes – and so do answers.
You will come out of your meditation time with peace and an assurance in your spirit that everything is going to be OK.
If you finish your meditation time and you still don’t feel a sense of peace, or those things are still worrying you even a little bit, then you need to spend some more time with God in meditation.
There is a point of release and peace that you can get to in your spirit and you will know when you have reached it but don’t give up before you reach it.
You will know you have reached that point of complete release when you are able to walk away from your time with God with a complete peace and assurance in your spirit.
Stay there in meditation until you push through and reach that point.
Most days you will find that you can let go and release things very quickly, even in just a few minutes, allowing you to move into your meditation time and spend more time connecting with God.
In fact, I find that not only in meditation but even when things happen during the day that would normally stress or worry me or if someone does something to hurt or offend me, I am able to let it go very quickly. Not very much bothers me anymore because I have learnt the art of “letting go” through daily practice.
However, there are days and times when you are facing things where it will be necessary to spend more time, even an hour or more with God in meditation to really push through to that point of peace and release.
I once heard Pastor Phil Pringle speak about Psalm 55:22 “Cast your cares upon the Lord and He will sustain you”. I remember Pastor Phil saying that sometimes it takes time to cast your cares.
You might think that it is impossible to spend so much time focusing on God, but you would be amazed how easy and enjoyable it really is.
If you find your mind begins to wander and tries to creep back to thoughts of worry and stress, just let the thought go. Don’t become anxious about it; let the thoughts go and refocus on God. Again, use scripture, worship and your prayer language to keep your spirit focused on God.
On a practical note, it is very hard to “take every thought captive” as the Bible tells us to do in 2 Corinthians 10:5 and release it to God when we are physically tired. When you are tired, your thoughts run wild around your mind and are very hard to control.
It is important to take care of yourself, get lots of rest to be able to make the most of your meditation time with God.
What sort of things should you release to God? Absolutely everything! Let it all go, every worry, every care, every problem, and every concern. Don’t hold on to a thing. Let it all go to God.
You might think that your problem is too big and it would be irresponsible to not be concerned about it because there are things we all need to take care of in life.
There is no problem that is too big to be released to God. It is not about pretending your problems don’t exist. It is about finding peace, calmness and reassurance in your spirit that things are going to be OK; everything is going to be alright, despite how the circumstances look.
It’s not only problems and worries that you need to let go. Sometimes we need to let go of good things that distract us too. Sometimes our lives become so busy and stressful from trying to juggle lots of good things.
Instead of becoming stressed and trying to focus on all the different things you have going on in your life, we need to let go and just focus on the One thing, which of course is God.
I love Matthew 6:33 which says “Seek God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”
You may have tried meditation before and “it didn’t work for you” but I know for sure it is possible for every person (no exceptions) to let go and find peace and release in the stillness of His presence. I urge you to give it a go today.
I will finish with the words of a magnificent hymn that express so perfectly the truth of the revelation of letting go of the things of this life that weigh us down and instead, turning our eyes to Jesus.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
I hope you found today’s post helpful. If so, please share with a friend by using one of the links below.
If you enjoyed the words of the hymn you might also like this scripture to meditate on. Personally, I use this scripture a lot. Try memorizing it to really let it sink into your spirit.
Colossians 3:1-3
“Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God”
If you have never connected with God before but would like to be able to release all your worries and cares to him, click here to pray a prayer to begin a relationship with God the Father, his son Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
As always, praying blessings and peace for you especially as you learn the power of letting go!
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