Tag: gift of peace

Gifts Of The Spirit: Part 4

Gifts Of The Spirit: Part 4

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For many years now, I have sensed gifts of the Spirit and the peace of God within me.  It carries over into all the relationships that I have with others, and persons often comment about the peace that they see or sense in me. 

There is no doubt that this peace came to me in meditation and whenever I sense that I am becoming perturbed or experience unrest or if I do become overwhelmed with my feelings—I find a quiet place and wait until peace comes upon me once again. 

It is often in the details of life that peace may become eroded especially when I neglect meditative prayer for a time.  In times of crisis or in the face of extreme suffering, I usually experience peace as a deep reservoir that I can draw upon.

The gift of peace does not insulate us from suffering. In fact, we may be called to suffer, as Christ suffered, in order to enter into the suffering of others.  It is in the mystery of poverty, that is the letting go of all attachments, and through suffering, we find the strength in 
the Holy Spirit to connect with those who are often suffering just as we are, and we are able to assist in offering God’s healing power. 

These connections are seldom, if ever, of our doing. These encounters of healing are the Holy Spirit bringing hope and joy into situations of suffering and despair.  Again, it requires a certain emptiness of “self” in order to reach out and trust that the Holy Spirit is always more capable than we are to heal the human body and spirit.  

Our “desire” to heal may be great but, even as doctors or psychologists, our ability to heal is limited – limited to the body or the mind respectively – unless we can connect with the spirit in ourselves and with the spirit of the person.  Even then, we are powerless in and of ourselves.  

As a chaplain, I realize each day the extent of my powerlessness. Each day and each visit is an entirely new experience. As I walk into the hospital each morning, I am always reminded of how inadequate I am to the task.  Even on days when I am tired and lack energy, the Holy Spirit provides the energy and emotional reserve needed to connect with the patients. 

My lifelong tendencies toward the logical and analytical have finally been sublimated to the emotional and spiritual needs of the patients.  I have struggled with this personal issue in my training as a chaplain and now I observe this tendency in many others whose intellect seems to block their spiritual growth.

Yet, I continue to observe spiritual and physical healing each day as well.  It is humbling to be used on occasion as the instrument of that healing. 

Click to check out Gifts of The Spirit: Part 1, Gifts of The Spirit: Part 2, and Gifts of The Spirit: Part 3

Gifts of the Spirit: Part 3

Gifts of the Spirit: Part 3

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A particular gift of the Spirit that God seems to will for us in meditation is the gift of peace.  One may experience a calmness or more peaceful state almost immediately upon beginning in meditation.  

However, as meditative prayer deepens and God becomes the revealed center of one’s life, the gift of peace comes to the interior of the soul and resides there. It is the peace that is born of the assurance that God is always with us; that God’s plan for us is our plan for ourselves.  

This interior peace is the peace that surpasses all understanding because it is not knowledge or analysis that brought us to this interior state.  It is the revealed presence of God in our soul. 

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.(Philippians 4:6-7) 

We live now in and for this moment, for we understand that this moment and every succeeding moment belongs to God.  It is the realization that the total commitment of the self to our Higher Power gives us the freedom to be who we truly are, a child of God.  

In one sense, this peace is a call to a passive sort of action for we carry this peace with us wherever we go.  Others may see or sense this peace within us as it carries within the assurance and confidence that God is always with us.  Obstacles to living the fullness of life become learning opportunities and part of God’s plan for us.  

Since God as pure goodness is revealed to the interior of our soul there is a willingness to await the next revelation in our lives and, then, to carry out God’s will. The Holy Spirit creates the next opportunity for our service and provides whatever strength and power are needed.

Click to check out Gifts of The Spirit: Part 1, Gifts of The Spirit: Part 2, and Gifts of The Spirit: Part 4

Solitude and Silence in Meditation: Part 2

Solitude and Silence in Meditation: Part 2

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However, God most often comes to us in silence wherever we seek out that silence.  It is when the noise of the world is not overpowering that God can best speak to us in a small, quiet voice. 

Be still and know that I Am God. (Psalm 46:10)  

Silent prayer is the way to enter into the presence of God and to let the Spirit of God seep into the soul. It is a way to experience the loving presence of God without asking or requesting.  It is the antithesis of action; a conscious choice to simply “be,” to rest in God. It leads to the gift
of peace, of stillness and calm even in the most trying of circumstance. 

The practice of silent prayer is to turn oneself entirely over to God, to let God act and guide one’s life, to listen intently for God’s word. While listening might imply some action, it is more a state of being open and receptive to God.  It is a diminishing of “self” in favor of humble
acceptance of God’s will, a total commitment to God’s call in our life.  

All masks are shed and we stand naked before God in the reality of the One who made us, in God’s likeness and image. (Genesis 1:26)   

The more we are able to empty ourselves and enter into the reality that is God, our Creator, the more we come to know ourselves as dependent on God’s grace and love. We become aware of our limitations, our conditions for acceptance of others, our selfishness and sinfulness, and our desires for success or failure.  

The struggle to deal with lifelong behaviors based upon self-centeredness may be long and arduous. We do not give up easily, what has become comfortable behaviors for us, even those that we know are disabling. 

In a sense, we become addicted to practices, sometimes even religion or religiosity, that may be harmful to drawing closer to the Source of our being.  

However, all these are eventually put aside or sublimated to the overriding desire to draw close to God.  God’s graciousness and mercy to accept us and love us in face of all of our imperfections, overwhelms us. 

Click to check out Solitude and Silence in Meditation: Part 1