Over the past few years, I’ve talked a lot about submission to Christ, most recently during our two-part series on Jesus as our perfect high priest.
In my experience, submission is easy to talk about, and hard to do. But there are methods that we can use to help make it a little more manageable. And, as we regularly practice submission, it gets easier—a lot easier! So we can grab hold of that hope, in the knowledge that the struggle is worth it, and it won’t always be as strong as it is at first.
When we’re faced with a big decision, sometimes the process of deciding can be overwhelming. As Christians, we want to honour God with our decisions. We want to follow the leading of Jesus through the Holy Spirit, but we can sometimes find it difficult to hear what God is saying to us.
For instance, if I want something strongly enough, sometimes my own desires overwhelm my ability to properly discern God’s desires. In my experience, God very rarely gets into a shouting match with my subconscious.
So, when we’re trying to submit ourselves to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, it’s important that we first take steps to quiet our hearts so that we can properly hear the things He has to tell us.
Over the years, I’ve developed a special exercise that enables me to enter into a submissive state of mind, so that I can follow Jesus more completely. Today, I’d like to share it with you.
You will need to close your eyes for the duration of this auditory meditation, so please be sure to start when you’re in a quiet place where it’s safe to close your eyes.
This meditation might take some time, but you can’t rush it. Be patient with yourself. Feel free to pause this recording as often as you need, to give yourself the space to feel and imagine.
A few comments to finish:
It’s possible that you may not be able to come to a place of full submission and finish this meditation in a single sitting. That’s okay. You can come back in an hour or a day and try again. When you return, be sure to start meditating from the beginning of this recording. It’s not a failure to need more time.
For this exercise, I have assumed that there are only two options to decide between, but if there are more, imagine as many branches in the road as there are possible options. Each branch will represent a different option you have available to you in your current decision. Please carry out the steps in this exercise for every available option.
