Before I learnt to meditate on God I was a very stressed, unhappy, often angry person. But then I had an encounter with God that changed my life when I learnt how to meditate on Him. I was like a weary, tired, thirsty traveller, struggling through the desert of life. I was tired, I was desperate for peace; I felt beaten down by the things of life. But then I was like a weary traveller on my last legs stumbling across a deep, beautiful, refreshing, life-giving pool of peace that my thirsty soul could swim in. Peace so beautiful it caused all my worries to fade into the distance, and peace so powerful that it caused all my worries to “work together for good” (as the scripture says) while I just simply swam in the deep crystal pools of peace.Anyone can swim in this pool. In fact you can swim in the pool of peace every day, every moment of your life but first there is one thing you must do. There is only one way to enter this sweet, deep pool of peace and that is by letting go of all the worries, troubles, cares, anxieties and baggage that is weighing you down.
And that is usually the reason why most people want to meditate – they want to be able to let go of all the worries and things weighing them down and find some peace for their soul in the noise and craziness of life. But I’ve found that until you learn to let go it’s not possible to enter the pool of peace.
“Letting go” is an essential part of being able to meditate on God and find peace.
So today I want to share a little bit more about letting go and how to do it.
What do they do when a ship is sinking? They throw unnecessary weight and baggage overboard. What do they do when a plane is about to hit turbulent weather? I don’t know if you know this, but they ditch fuel, they release and unload extra weight and extra fuel to lighten the load.
We can learn a lesson from this. When we feel like we are sinking in life or we are facing storms and turbulent weather, we need to learn how to release the unnecessary load that is weighing us down.
There are all kinds of things we can unload – forgiveness is one that I will talk about another day. Today I’m talking about letting go of all the worries, cares, troubles, anxieties and stress that burden our heart. The thing that consumes our thoughts constantly, that thing that causes our stomach to churn when we first wake in the morning.
It is possible to learn to let go of all those things and find complete and lasting peace that stays in your heart no matter what the circumstances are.
And this was the very first thing I learnt to do when I learnt to meditate on God and I still start my meditation every day by letting go.
I have a quiet place where I go each morning. I sit and close my eyes and take a deep breath as I invite the Spirit of God to come and fill me with His peace and then I spend a few minutes (sometimes more if I need to) just letting go.
I might see myself on that sinking ship throwing off all the extra weight and baggage – that is the worries and cares of my life. Whatever you do – don’t think about what the details of those things are – just see yourself throwing them overboard – giving them to God.
It’s very important that when you’re letting go, when you’re giving things to God that don’t think about what those things are. You might want to say to God (and I say it silently) “I give this to you God, and I give that to you” but don’t stop and think about the issues. Just let them go.
Sometimes I see myself and I’m holding onto something so tightly because I’m so worried about it and so I will open up my hands as a gesture of releasing it to God. Sometimes it’s like a brick wall that has encased itself around my mind and I begin to see that wall crack and crumble and fall away from me as I let things go. Sometimes I feel like things have got such a hold of me it’s like chains wrapped around me and I can’t get myself free from them and so I begin to see myself taking them off and lifting them off me and laying them at the feet of Jesus.
Again, whatever you do don’t think about what those things are, just see yourself letting them go – giving them to God, releasing them to Him.
I pray that this week you will spend some time just working through that, spend some time working on letting things go. And as you do, I pray that you would feel the peace of God begin to rise in your heart.
You may not be able to do it completely in one go but keep working toward this. This is why we need to come to God every day in meditation and begin by working on letting go. You will get better at it. It will get easier as you go along.
Sometimes we have to stay longer in meditation than other times. If you feel like you’re not getting that release, you’re not getting that peace you need, stay a little longer in your meditation. Just keep on letting go and keep on giving it to God until you breakthrough into peace.
It can be hard to learn to let go in the beginning but don’t give up – if you keep working at this, keep pushing through, it might happen right away, it might take a little longer, but eventually you will feel it in your heart – the worries and the cares will be gone and peace comes and you’ve entered into the still, secret place with God.
And after you’ve finished your meditation, throughout the day, if you feel stress or worry or anxiety start to rise in your spirit, take a deep breath and remind yourself, say “I let it go”, give it to God and continue in peace.
Sometimes there’s another reason why a plane or a train or a boat unloads its cargo and its rubbish – and that’s because it’s reached its destination.
Sometimes that’s what we have to do. To realise we’ve come to the end of a season. It’s over. It’s time to unload, to get rid of stuff and move onto a new season. Don’t keep that old thing going. It’s come to an end it’s not going any further. It’s time to recognise those times. But just like a plane that reaches its destination and unloads there’s always a new destination to go to – a new journey to take. But you won’t move on or get to it while you are holding onto the old. Don’t be like the last bag on the carousel that no one has collected just going round and round and round. Still on that same old journey. End that journey. Throw off the old. Throw out the rubbish and the cargo that’s accumulated along the way and start your new journey. This time without baggage – it’s the best way to travel.
And one last tip that I can give you – one of the best things you can learn to do and you can start doing this right away is to learn to not let things in. Don’t let it get in. When you feel that hurt or pain or that worry or that anxiety, don’t let it in. When that persons let you down. When you feel grieved because they haven’t treated you the way they should or haven’t behaved the way they should – don’t let it in. Proverbs 4:23 says to guard your heart… it is the wellspring of life and honestly you would save yourself so much pain and so much heartache and so much trouble having to spend time letting go if you learn to not let it in in the first place.
You have a magnificent future ahead of you. Don’t let things get in that will disrupt your journey. Learn to say “I let it go… I let it go”. It is a wonderful, peace-filled, spirit-filled thing to be able to do.
If you’re listening to this on the video blog, you might like to pause the video for a moment so you can go to a place where you can close the door, maybe put on some quiet worship music and just sit there and close your eyes and I just want to pray for you.
As I pray begin to see yourself letting go of every worry, every care, every problem, everything that you’re anxious about, just one by one, let it all go.
So I pray right now Father that the peace of God would come on every heart. God that every person would learn to be able to let go. Let those things go and release those things to you as they turn their heart and their attention and their focus to you God. Pour out your Holy Spirit. Let them feel your peace come all over their heart filling them up from their very innermost being. Like a wellspring of life God. Peace, calm, rest, Lord. Some people have not felt rest in their heart for a very long time but I pray today God, Holy Spirit let your rest come on every heart. Thank you Lord.
I will be praying for you this week as you continue to let go and meditate on Him.
God bless – and if you like this video please consider liking, subscribing and sharing it with your friends.
Thank you and God bless,
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