Deck 1 - The Journey
Deck 1 – The Journey
August 2021
Life sure can be messy and complicated! Do you ever feel like you have hit a plateau in your prayer life or have stopped growing spiritually? I sure have. There are so many conflicting messages in the world, where do you find the truth? So often the world’s messages are contrary to what I feel in my heart or experience in my life. Throw in suffering and a global pandemic and one can really get off their game! What is a soul to do? I say, get to know Jesus Christ in a deeper, more personal way! (John 14:6) Christianity is a lifelong journey to discover and follow Jesus as our Lord and Savior with the hope for life with Him in eternity. Christianity is a journey towards heaven where charity is perfected! Get to know Jesus by developing a deep interior prayer life. You learn to pray by praying! The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness and distractions. (Romans 8:26-27) Journey towards His truths and promises in Scripture so you can live a life of love, joy, and peace. You will not be disappointed!
As Christians, we are called to have a rich interior life, one that is centered on the person of Jesus Christ! Christ, God made man, reaches down to earth to be in a relationship with each one of us. An intimate friendship (John 15:15) with Jesus is unique to each person, our temperament and personality, our experience and education, our culture and language, our work and play. We search for and long for fulfillment in life, deep in our innermost beings. Most of us try to satisfy these longings with worldly goods, people, power, money, prestige, education, health, etc. Earthly pursuits endlessly fall short of our deepest desires (Luke 12:15). If you sense you were created for more (John 10:10): more peace, more joy, more gladness, more contentment, more forgiveness, more hope, more love…these can only truly be found in relationship with God. Getting to know Jesus, the power of his love and mercy, is a lifelong journey of seeing, hearing, and finding Him in your life and in your heart.
Like many in our “modern” world I have found true inner peace and progress in virtue elusive (Romans 7:15). Every spiritual book I read talks about peace as a state of being for Christians. I seem to only experience pride, anxiety, and fear. I thought I had a close relationship with Jesus Christ, but my inner peace was constantly disturbed, and I sensed that was not a good sign for my spiritual growth. Peace is a barometer of a healthy spiritual life, and I did not have it (Isaiah 26:3). What was I doing wrong?
In my search for peace, I discovered 3 main truths:
- Maintaining quiet peace in our heart (not a state of constant noise and anxiety) allows us to hear God’s voice and see His grace at work in our lives. The peace comes from trusting Jesus and trusting Him comes from knowing Him. Knowing Him comes from time spent in Prayer with Scripture.
- Jesus has endless Mercy he yearns to pour out on our souls, but many of us do not know, do not care, or do not bother to ask for it. This hurts His sacred heart when we don’t turn to Him.
- Meditating quietly and daily on Scripture, alone with Christ, is necessary to grow spiritually and to be in relationship with Him. Quiet, intentional prayer time is so fruitful in your journey!
Being a baptized, active Christian my entire life, I heard Scripture proclaimed at Church, attended Bible Seminars, Bible Studies and read many spiritual books yet I still had a hands-off attitude towards the Bible. Praying with Scripture, Meditating, Lectio Divina (divine reading) were all terms and recommendations I had read about over the years, but I did not think they were for me. I was terrible at memorizing. I did not have the time to learn enough history to help me grasp Scripture’s hidden meanings. My excuses were never ending. My expectations and experiences were that the Bible was hard to comprehend, full of ancient stories, customs, names, and places that had little relevance to my modern life. The Old Testament was out of my league…I had no PHD in Theology! There were stories of battles and killings and sacrifices and laws. The New Testament was far more readable and engaging yet I rarely picked it up to pray with. Why? I think My expectations of Scripture and its relevance to my life was misguided. I depended too much on myself. (Proverbs 3:5) I had always found the Bible intimidating. Holy Scriptures, the “WORD” was supposed to impact my life profoundly, be a love letter from God and be full of wisdom. I had several Bibles in our house, in a drawer or sitting on a bookshelf giving the illusion of holiness. I rarely opened them on my own. I rarely took the time.
What I had avoided my entire Christian walk was the key to the peace I was searching for. I knew many of the stories about Jesus. I knew the Old Testament stories pointed to Jesus in the New Testament. (Luke 24:27) I prayed to Him and worshipped Him at Church, but I did not spend daily, consistent quiet time, with Scripture, getting to know Him, one on one, eye to eye, with a quiet, docile, open heart, learning and listening, about his character, his friends, his words, his actions, his stories, and his will (Psalm 85:8). This type of prayer is not an intellectual exercise, yet it engages our thoughts, emotions, imaginations, and desires. Knowing Christ personally through Scripture and Prayer is the key to spiritual growth and thus to the lasting peace I was looking for.
Meditating on Christ in Scripture became the focus of my prayer time. (Psalms 119:14-15) I made a commitment to early, daily quiet time. (Mark1:35) I resisted the urge to rush through “reading” or checking things off my spiritual to do list (finish this book, listen to this podcast, pray a rosary, pray for my zillions of prayer requests, finish this Bible study lesson, read this inspirational email, etc.). While all worthy activities, I learned to devote this time of the day to getting to know Jesus. By listening to Him through Scripture, examining my attitudes and motives, thinking deeply (pondering), relating his teachings to my own life’s circumstances, resolving to act and to changing my behaviors and thoughts, I finally started to grow again spiritually.
Human nature, after all, has not changed from ancient times, even though our customs and environments and levels of knowledge have changed. Scripture is the relevant, living word of God, infused, and inspired by the actions of the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16) which means it can pierce each human heart in a personal way, (Hebrews 4:12) appealing to a unique set of circumstances, experiences, temperaments, and levels of understanding. God is that powerful, yet He does not force his way of living and loving on us by edict or by masterful puppeteering. He desires relationship with us from a point of love, mercy and free will, waiting and hoping we turn to Him. We should approach Him in prayer, with humility, docility, and heart, leaving behind our often-misguided expectations of Him and His Word. St. Ambrose of Milan famously said that prayer is a dialogue that takes place between God and man; for “we speak to Him when we pray; we listen to Him when we read the divine Scriptures.”
To say that scripture meditation and quiet, daily, dedicated prayer time has transformed my heart and put my spiritual growth on an exponential curve is an understatement. It did not take long for the peace and the trust to build and become my steady state of being. I still have anxious situations, sin, and make mistakes but my understanding of the depth of God’s mercy and faithfulness is reinforced in Scripture, by knowing Jesus intimately. His grace is sufficient for me! (2 Corinthians 12:9) The more I know Him, the easier it is to trust and obey Him with my life and to surrender my will daily to his. Knowing Jesus, his mercy, his promises, his character and letting Him know me, in a deeply personal way, has brought me a peace that truly surpasses all understanding. (Philippians 4:6-7)
May your journey to know Christ be fruitful and may you find his peace!
Loving you in Christ,
Beth Howe