Do you ever feel like your prayers go unheard, and you just wish God would talk back? Imagine if you could actually hear His guidance and wisdom in a way you have probably never even considered...

It doesn't matter who you are, we all have times when we feel so far away from God. And yes, I'm even talking about those who are Christians. This episode explores how integrating meditation with prayer can transform your prayer life, leading to an even deeper relationship with God.

In this episode, your host, Kevin Lowe dives into the powerful combination of prayer and meditation. By sharing personal insights and practical tips, Kevin guides you through creating a space for God to speak to you. He addresses common misconceptions about meditation, explaining how it can be harmonized with Christian faith to enhance your spiritual connection. Learn how to break through the noise and discover the peace that comes from truly listening to God.

What You Will Learn:

• Enhanced Spiritual Connection: Discover how combining prayer and meditation can deepen your relationship with God.
• Practical Meditation Tips: Learn simple, actionable steps to start meditating effectively and integrate it into your prayer routine.
• Misconceptions Clarified: Gain a better understanding of meditation’s role in Christian faith and how it can be a powerful tool for spiritual growth.
• Personal Growth: Gain insights from Kevin’s own journey of faith and how it helped him navigate life’s challenges, offering you inspiration and encouragement.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This episode is not Kevin acting as though he has it all figured out. This is rather an exploration of an idea to enhance our prayer life, and ultimately our relationship with our creator.

Mentioned Links & Resources:

• MyPillow: Visit MyPillow.com and use promo code Kevin for the best deals.
• Prayer Request Line: Text your prayer requests to 877-749-8178.
• Newsletter Sign-up: Join the Grit, Grace, & Inspiration newsletter by CLICKING HERE.

ALL THE WAYS WE CAN CONNECT

GET IN TOUCH

PODCAST HOST: KEVIN LOWE

• Schedule a Call with Kevin
• Visit Our Website
• Become a Grit, Grace, & Inspiration Insider
• Follow Kevin's LinkedIn Newsletter
• SEND KEVIN A VOICE MESSAGE

Guided by Faith. Inspired by life itself.

© 2024 Grit, Grace, & Inspiration

I want to start today off with a powerful question, and that is,

do you ever feel like your prayers, they're just not heard?

You pray to God, you have all these things that are weighing heavy on your heart,

and you hand it all over to God.

But sometimes you just really wish that God would talk back.

You really wish that you could hear his whisper. You could have his advice.

Well, what if I ask this question? Do you give God space to talk to you?

Because I don't know if your prayer life looks anything like mine,

but I know that me, I pray, I ask God for stuff,

I beg for other things, I thank him for the things he's done in my life, I say amen,

and then I go on with life, or I go right to sleep.

But in that, I've never allowed an opportunity for God to speak to me.

And that is where today we're exploring this powerful combination of prayer and meditation.

Because praying, that's us talking to God.

Meditating, that's allowing God to talk to us. I welcome you to episode 291.

What's up, my friend, and welcome to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

I am your host, Kevin Lowe. 20 years ago, I awoke from a life-saving surgery

only to find that I was left completely blind. And since that day,

I've learned a lot about life, a lot about living, and a lot about myself.

And here on this podcast, I want to share those insights with you.

Because friend, if you are still searching for your purpose,

still trying to understand why, or still left searching for that next right

path to take, we'll consider this to be your stepping stone to get you from

where you are to where you want to be.

I don't know if you have ever tried it meditating before, but today we're going

to give it a whirl. We're going to give it a try.

But I will advise you that I highly recommend when it is time for you to meditate,

that you do so sitting up in a chair, not lying in bed.

There's some people who meditate when they first wake up in the morning,

but I'm going to assume that they probably aren't sleeping on a MyPillow or

MyPillow's amazing sheets, Because if they were,

I can guarantee they probably would not be able to stay awake while meditating.

Yes, my friend, we are sponsored by MyPillow, a leader in helping you to sleep a little bit better.

I know they sure do help me sleep mighty fine.

Highly recommend you go to MyPillow.com. Check out their amazing different offers.

First, as long as you use promo code Kevin, you're going to get access to the best price possible.

We're talking about the best deals on their website when you use promo code Kevin.

And right now they still have going on their $25 extravaganza where you can

find some of their very best products for literally only $25.

So go shopping today at MyPillow.com using promo code Kevin.

That information and all details are inside of today's show notes.

Moving right along from meditating while trying to not fall asleep to praying,

today's prayer request is for somebody who is just asking for God to show up in his life.

He's been out of work and he's been struggling. He wants to provide for his

family. He wants to provide for himself.

And if you've ever been without work and you've sent in all the applications

and you just keep getting no response, you know how frustrating that can be.

Today's prayer request is anonymous, which I always give that option to any

prayer request here on the podcast.

And so still yet, please help me in praying for this guy.

He knows who he is. God knows who he is.

And this person just could really use us praying that a breakthrough will happen in his life.

If you have someone or something that you would love help in praying for,

please send your prayer request as a text message to 877-749-8178.

Again, that number is 877-749-8178.

Send your prayer request via text to that number, and I will be honored to feature

it on a future episode of the podcast.

All right, let's get into it. And let's start by further exploring the idea

of why in the world I chose to talk about this in the first place.

And the biggest reason is, is I've seen so many people, sometimes myself included,

when you feel like you spend all this time praying and yet nothing thing ever happens.

It's like your prayers, they just get lost in the void of space.

It's like you start to think that, man, I don't know, God, does he got too many

other people praying? Does he not got time for me?

And of course, that's not at all the case.

And hopefully if you have a relationship with God, if you are a Christian, you know that.

But I understand how sometimes it It can feel that way.

And when it comes to meditation, I have heard different varying opinions on

what exactly meditating is, if it's something that Christians do or if it's

somehow going against our faith.

I think I actually read online somebody joking that meditating,

it's not just for monks on mountaintops.

And I thought that was so funny because I was like, I think in so many cases,

that's what people think of when they think of meditation.

So what I wanted to really get to explore both for myself and to get to share

with you kind of real time is the idea of combining the two.

Because I've come to realize that I believe that when we combine the meditation

with prayer, we honestly just totally heighten the level of connection with God.

And we take that one act of praying, we turn it into two.

Because sometimes I'll be honest. Sometimes I tell God in my prayer that I'm sorry.

I feel like I'm always asking for things. And sometimes I feel like I forget

to thank him enough for all the blessings in my life, the blessings that I honestly

don't even realize, the things that I take for granted.

But when we take it to another level by this idea of meditation.

Really allowing ourselves to be open to hearing God.

I think sometimes when we think about hearing We think of it as something like

in, what was it, that funny movie with, I think it was Jim Carrey, like Bruce Almighty.

And we think of God with this big booming voice and like it's just going to

knock us down. He's going to be yelling at us so loud.

But it's actually the total opposite.

Because, well, so many times we hear that God speaks in a whisper.

And if we're not quiet and we don't take the time to be quiet,

then what if we're missing that whisper?

We've filled our lives with all this noise, blocking out any opportunity to

hear that whisper, telling us exactly what we hope to hear.

So let's break it down. We're going to first start with prayer.

I think most of us pretty much understand the idea of praying.

So I thought that would be a good starting point.

Praying. It's what we do when we talk to God.

It's what we do when we go to bed at night, before we go to sleep.

It's what we do around the table at family dinners, before we eat.

It's, of course, what we do when we're in church.

Prayer is done in so many different ways and in different places and different situations.

Sometimes prayer is very structured. Sometimes Sometimes it almost comes across very formal.

But for me personally, prayer is nothing more than a conversation with my creator.

It's nothing more than me talking to the person who means more to me than anyone

else in this entire life.

Because God has been there from day one.

And the fact that I get to have direct communication with my creator is amazing,

just like everyone does.

And so I want you to maybe think about prayer as nothing more than a conversation.

It's you getting to communicate with God. And that's a really powerful thing.

Now there's different types of prayers. I actually heard my grandmother,

my Nana, refer to popcorn prayers at one point.

And that was those little prayers that it's just when you're out doing life,

You're driving in the car and you say to yourself, oh, God, please let this light turn green.

I am running late to work. It's a little popcorn prayer.

All these different types of prayer. But in relation to combining with meditation,

I'm more talking about the time when we really set aside a moment to pray,

like before going to sleep at night.

Or what I love to do is to pray right when I wake up in the morning.

It's in these moments that I'm talking about specifically today,

when we have a few extra moments, when life is a little bit slower,

the world is a little bit quieter.

It's in these moments that I feel we can combine prayer with meditation.

And with that, I feel like that's a perfect segue into meditation.

So let's talk a little bit about exactly what at least I view meditating as.

Meditation is definitely something that I feel like is often misunderstood.

Even for myself, I don't think I fully understood what meditation could mean,

especially in the context of faith.

Faith, because so many times when I've heard about meditation in the past,

it's always about basically emptying your mind.

It's focusing on the silence. It's clearing your mind of everything.

Sometimes they tell you to find one, maybe noise, isolated noise.

And when your mind starts to wonder and you start to think about different things,

you're You're supposed to just focus back on that one thing.

You're supposed to just clear your mind.

And to be honest, it's really, really difficult to do.

But then when I heard about this idea of meditating in addition to prayer,

meditation takes on a whole new meaning, a whole new purpose,

and a whole new method. Right?

Because meditating in this manner, it's, yeah, it's about getting quiet.

Yes, it's about focusing on your breathing. It's about being sure that you're

in a place that you can be totally relaxed.

Hopefully is as silent as you can possibly get in this loud world that we live in.

But it's somewhere that you can just be still.

And instead of you hoping to sit in a moment of pure silence,

the hope is that you focus on God,

you focus on your faith, you focus on Jesus Christ.

You are basically creating a quiet space for you to listen to God.

It's about being still, being calm, and listening for God's guidance and direction.

Basically, you're giving God the opportunity to speak while you just listen.

Basically, the total opposite of praying, which is when we talk and we hope that God is listening.

Now, I'm going to be honest with you. I don't think you're always going to feel

like you just heard God speak to you.

I know that I haven't. And even before this whole idea of meditating,

sometimes you just feel like God isn't speaking to you.

And I don't want you to feel like, oh, okay, all I have to do is now meditate

and immediately I'm going to hear God's voice.

No, all I'm talking about with this combination is the idea of taking prayer

to the next level of even more heightening the entire experience of faith,

of having a relationship with God.

It's about giving space for God to speak to you.

It's about you showing up for your faith, hoping.

You hear from God. But even if while meditating, you don't actually hear God's

whisper, I just want you to pay attention to how you feel at the end.

You don't have to do it for long.

Maybe set a goal for one minute, five minutes. You don't have to do it forever.

Just give yourself time to do it for as long as you can and see how you feel at the end.

Chances are, I bet you're you're going to feel pretty good. You're going to

feel better than if you just prayed and went on about life.

No, you've extended that time with God for even longer than you had before.

And honest to goodness, that's really kind of the biggest point in it all.

So if we want to talk like practical application, what does this look like?

Paint the picture for me.

Well, I'm going to paint the picture for you, and it starts with you lying in

bed at night, and you say a prayer before you go to sleep.

But you don't say your prayers as you're falling asleep.

No, you instead make time to pray to God, and you make time after you say amen

to sit in the the silence, to focus on the silence,

to think about God, to think about a certain piece of scripture,

to think about maybe your favorite Christian song, that one specific lyric that stands out.

Just think of that. Keep that in the front of your mind and focus on not allowing

anything else to come in.

That is your opportunity to put all your focus, all your attention, on God.

And I'm here to tell you, that's pretty darn powerful.

Now, if you have never tried meditating before, they talk about your breathing

as a big part of meditating.

And I think it is. And so what you want to do, if you're somebody who allergies

haven't struck and you can't breathe through your nose, try doing the big breaths

just in through your nose.

And out through your mouth. Creating this circle of air of in through your nose

and out through your mouth.

Helping to just relax your entire body.

Literally let your entire body just fall heavy.

Starting with the tips of your toes, working all the way up to the top of your head.

Instead, letting your entire body just relax to be in this moment,

this moment of meditation, this moment of listening for God to speak to you.

And as I said, whether or not you actually feel like you heard God's whisper or not,

you've just heightened this entire experience of being in your faith to a level

that most Most people never experience.

This is powerful stuff.

It's something that I will be honest, I have not been doing in my life.

But since learning about it, I'm going to adopt it as part of my nightly routine.

And maybe it would be really cool if you did the same.

And maybe at the end of the day, we can compare notes on how things are going.

Best way to do that is be sure that you're on the email list for this podcast,

graceinspiration.com slash newsletter, where I send out a weekly newsletter

in which you can reply to on every issue that I send out.

And I would love to hear how this is going for you.

Now, I want to share one little thing about this whole concept of praying and meditating.

Sometimes I have learned in my own life that God seems to speak when I'm not

quiet, when maybe I'm not lying there meditating,

but instead I'm just going through life, doing normal stuff.

And I want you to allow yourself to use this as an opportunity to get in touch

with the Holy Spirit that's inside of you. It's inside all of us.

And I want you to use this whole idea of praying and meditating as just one

more step, one thing closer to having you have a relationship with God.

When I went blind now over 20 years ago, the only way that I got through it,

the only way that I am here today is because of my relationship with God.

I hung on to my faith so hard after going blind.

Now, a lot of people, sometimes when tragedy strikes, they turn away from God

because, well, they feel like, how could God do this?

If God was real, he wouldn't allow this to happen. But thankfully for me,

that was the total opposite.

Instead, I clung to my faith. I prayed all the time, but not just prayed, I talked to God.

And that's what I encourage anybody to do, is to not think about it as prayer,

but think of it as conversation, you getting to talk with your creator.

And that is one of the most powerful, most peaceful, most amazing things you can ever do. But then...

We take it to the next level by giving space for God to speak to us.

So basically, that's it for today. It was me just wanting to explore this idea with you.

It's something that I've recently learned about, understood more about.

And well, I thought I might as well share what I've learned with you.

And maybe you'll be on this journey with me of combining prayer with meditation.

My friend, it is an honor and a blessing to have you here joining me on this

podcast for this amazing ride.

If you ever feel like you would love to have an opportunity to speak with me,

please know that my door is always open.

There is a link inside of the show notes where you can book a virtual coffee date with me.

We can jump on a phone call and just talk. I am honored to help anybody out

by just having somebody for you to talk to.

So again, you can check out the show notes and you can find a link to my online

calendar right there and schedule a time and let's talk.

I want to be here for you. And with that, my friend, I wish you nothing but the best.

I hope your day is incredible, and I remind you that if nobody has told you

lately, you are simply amazing.

I'll see you next week.

Music.