Many of you have followed my series on “Finding Stillness” earlier this year and I hope in this busy season leading up to Christmas that some of those tips are helping you to stay in peace.If you are just joining us now for the first time – it’s not too late to read my 20 Tips on How to Be Still – you can go to the website www.GodCentredMeditation.com and sign up for the blog and you will be sent the link to the tips.
I’m excited to be able to bring this message to you today by video blog for the first time. Just click on the link if you would like to watch this online.
In what is meant to be a joyful, peace-filled, celebratory season often it turns into a stressed, hectic, rushed and exhausting season. So I thought I would share two more tips that have helped me to stay calm, peace-filled and relaxed in this wonderful but often crazy season.
One very simple thing that I have learnt to do that helps me to stay calm and peace-filled is not to rush.
I realised one day that I was starting my day in meditation feeling peaceful and calm but then I had so much to do that I had to rush everywhere. I would race to the shops and then rush around to get everything done before I rushed back to work to get some jobs done and then rush to school to pick up my son. I was rushing from here to there – I had school concerts and award assemblies to attend, Christmas parties and Christmas shopping to do. There were days when I literally did not stop from early morning to late at night.
And I noticed that the more I rushed, the more the noise, chaos and frenzy around me seemed to build and by the end of the day I would come home feeling wrung out and exhausted.
So I decided that no matter how busy my day is or how much I have to do – I am not going to rush and it’s amazing how much difference it makes. When I drive or when I’m walking somewhere or going to the shops I don’t rush. I hold my head up, take a deep breath, remind myself that I am a calm person and then I proceed to walk slowly and calmly.
I don’t let the crazy pace of the season determine my personal pace. And amazingly I still get the same amount done – probably even more than when I’m running around like a mad person.
And it’s amazing too how much difference it makes to my sense of peace to just slow down and walk.
I start my day now in meditation and then I stay in that peace zone. If I feel the sense of rush and frenzy starting to rise, I take a deep breath, slow down and remind myself that I am a peace-filled, calm person filled with God’s Spirit of peace and not the spirit of the rush and frenzy of the world.
Why not try it – next time you are feeling stressed and rushed, slow down and tell yourself “don’t’ rush I am a calm person” and walk slowly and calmly to wherever you’re going. Walk as if you are not in a rush. You will feel a greater sense of peace and control over your circumstances.
The sense of God’s presence lifts when we get into crazy, frenzy mode but when we stay calm and not rushed we are so much more aware of His presence with us wherever we are.
The other thing that has helped me a lot in this busy season is something the Holy Spirit spoke to me one morning in meditation.
When things start to get busy for me I write lists – lists of all the things that I have to do. With Christmas approaching and so much to do before my children started their school holidays in early December my list-writing went into over-drive. At one point my to-do-before-Christmas list was over three pages long!! And every day was spent frantically trying to cross off as many things from my list as I could. Yet it seemed for every one thing I crossed off I added five more things I needed to do.
To be truthful I was beginning to feel a bit overloaded and overwhelmed.
I was in meditation one morning and was reminded of the scripture Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength”
I wasn’t convinced this was the Holy Spirit speaking to me at first – surely He wasn’t giving me the pep talk “yes, Leah you can do it” because honestly I was too tired for a pep talk to help. But I realised for the first time the connection of this verse with the one immediately before it which says “I have learnt the secret of being content in any and every situation”. It seemed like an unusual but very interesting combination of verses to me – one is about being peaceful and content and the next one is “you can do it” and about strength and energy and doing “all things”. So I decided to study it a bit further to see what the connection is.
I found that Ellicott’s commentary says about the scripture “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” that “it represents the ultimate and ideal consciousness of the Christian”.
Wow! That’s an interesting thought but then it followed with this – and I knew this was the message from the Holy Spirit to me that day…
“The first thing needful is to throw off self-sufficiency, to know our weaknesses… and the next is to find the ‘strength made perfect in weakness’ (a reference to 2 Corinthians 12:9) and be strong in that”.
Wow! Yes that was me! I thought that I had all these things that I had to do – self-sufficiency. I had taken on the burden of thinking that I had to get everything done. I have to do it all; that the load rested on me.
Cambridge, another commentator, says “all things” in this verse refers to “all things with which a person has to do as the will of God brings them to him, not the boundless field of possibilities… the path not chosen by himself but by his Lord and Master. Not some but all things he can meet in peace and strength”.
What an incredible lesson and reminder for me that day – to throw off self-sufficiency. Even just being reminded that I did not have the burden of all these things brought instant peace and relief to my mind.
I immediately prayed this prayer – “Father, forgive me for forgetting that I only have to do what you want me to do. And You don’t send me into a tail spin. I throw off self-sufficiency today and every day. Your grace is my sufficiency. Help me to learn to live at the mercy of your grace – that’s how Jesus lived. I am created in the image of my Father and You give me grace and strength to do everything You have given me to do”.
So during this busy season I have started my meditation each morning with two things –
- I start by throwing off self-sufficiency; reminding myself that it is not all up to me; that I need only rely on God each day and
- I ask Him what does HE want me to do today. Remember His burden is light and His yoke is easy (Matthew 11:30)
Self-sufficiency is a burden. To throw off self-sufficiency is the ultimate letting go.
2 Corinthians 3:5 says “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God”
I hope these couple of thoughts help you to stop, take a breath and relax a bit in this busy season. I would like to finish by praying a prayer of peace over you.
If you are watching this online, take a moment to close your eyes, take a deep breath, forget your surroundings for a moment and think about the presence and the peace of God as I pray.
“Father I pray for every person who has taken this moment to be still and to focus on you and your beautiful presence. I pray peace over every heart. May every heart be still. May every heart be filled with the peace and presence of God throughout this season. May they feel your peace and your presence filling their soul, restoring and replacing the stress and the rush and the anxiety of this season. Let every heart feel and sense and know your presence and your peace. Where there has been stress, rushing, tension, anxiety, frustration may the peace of God rule and reign in every heart.
Where there has been trouble in relationships let your peace fall. Let love and forgiveness flow. May our eyes be on You this season. May we live in constant awareness of your presence with us. Emmanuel – God is with us. All the time. May this be at the forefront of our hearts and minds this season”.
If you have a few moments to remain as you are – in stillness and awareness of His presence, stay there and soak it in for a little longer. Feel His peace coming over you. Feel stress fading into the distance. Feel Him restoring and strengthening your heart. May the peace of God that transcends understanding guard your hearts and minds and keep you in peace this beautiful Christmas season.
Praying blessing and peace from our family to yours as we celebrate the birth of our beautiful Savior and keep our eyes on the One who matters this season.
God bless!
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