How Devotions With Meditation Bring Productivity

Meditative Devotions Build in You Capacity for Rest

Rest means you are neither striving to make things happen nor avoiding what God would use to cause growth in your life. It means you are walking in an attitude of rest and objectivity. This is the foundation of all growth. Picture the college student sitting at his desk facing a tough math problem in complete patience, knowing God is with him, knowing he has the skills to work it out if he sticks with it in a restful way.

How do you build this EQ rest capacity? A huge key is found in our devotional time with God.

Striving is a breakdown of EQ (Emotional Intelligence)

Everyone faces fears and insecurities sometimes, often daily.
When we feel insecure we often strive. We try and make things happen. We try and “jimmy a door open.” In some way we become controlling and more aggressive with others, or give them the silent treatment. Looking for a means to manipulate or manage things ourselves. Sometimes we even make vows to work harder or lose weight or avoid that bad habit at all costs.

Avoiding – we also have many ways we put walls around our hearts. If a person cuts us off in traffic, or our spouse is insensitive to our needs, or our boss yells at us , we think – “That jerk.”  But the minute we label someone, we are blocking them from our heart.

Acceptance is EQ in Action

When we can walk in acceptance, acknowledging God in all our ways, giving thanks to Him in all things, there’s a rest. From this place of rest grows the fruit of the Spirit. We honor all men, we honor ourselves, and we get things done.

Meditation (Contemplative Prayer) in Your Devotions

The discipline of contemplative prayer in our devotions fosters rest. I simply say some words of love to God and I wait in His presence. Sometimes I sense His presence and sometimes my mind wanders like crazy.

Learning to accept whatever happens as exactly what God has for me at that moment, with no sense of frustration is the key. This fosters rest. I stop judging my devotional time as “good” or “bad” and merely accept whatever I experienced as being okay. It just is.

Then this attitude of acceptance begins to spill over into other parts of our lives. When I’m not worked up to make things happen nor frustrated at things I don’t like, life flows more easily.