inner calm so i can be in tune...

how do you calm your thoughts and emotions when you are in prayer? david in his psalms says i do two things mentally and emotionally so I can hear from GOD.

relax your body. psalm 46.10 (niv), be still and know that i am GOD. and wait in silence. psalm 62.5 (nkjv), my soul waits silently for GOD alone.

waiting means it takes time. it's difficult to calm down in a hurry. forcing yourself to calm down quickly does not work. trying to force yourself to calm down in a hurry is about as effective as forcing yourself to go to sleep. it doesn't work. you can't force yourself to go to sleep. you have to wait until you go to sleep.

sometimes that takes awhile for your body and your mind to get the rpm's down. it just takes time.

GOD speaks to people who take the time to listen. if you're in a hurry, you're not going to hear GOD speak. you must withdraw and then you wait in silence, which calms your thoughts and emotions.

2 kings 3.15 says that elisha asked for soft music to be played while he tuned into GOD to find the answer to a question he had. he said, "bring me a harpist" and he had a harpist play while he tuned into GOD.

i've found that sometimes the quickest way to calm down is to put on a praise tape, some slow CHRISTian music and just start listening to it and it shifts my body, my mind, my emotions into a lower gear so i can learn to hear GOD.

now once your body is still and once your mind is quiet then you become sensitive to hearing GOD speak. inner calm opens the intercom to GOD and you hear HIM.

some of you maybe saying, this sounds like tm – transcendental meditation. but it's the exact opposite of transcendental meditation. tm and humanistic meditation says you want to make your mind go blank. that's the goal of it.

but the goal of prayer is not to make your mind go blank, the goal of prayer is to hear – tune in – to the voice of GOD so you can talk to HIM and HE can talk to you.

just a thought from the front porch…