Spending Time with God: The Art of Christian Meditation and Prayer

By Tamera Thoreson

Do you struggle to find time to spend alone with God? Do you want a closer relationship with Jesus while learning the art of Christian prayer and meditation? A deep relationship with Jesus is the key to a life of peace, prosperity, and purpose. If you are looking for ways to find time for prayer and meditation, Spending Time with God can help.

Author Tamera Thoreson knows what it’s like to be overwhelmed and powerless, but she also knows how to create the time and space for Jesus and have an empowered life. Now she seeks to inspire and equip you to

explore the concepts of prayer and meditation are and learn why they are essential for your life;
set up your space for success;
find the best time to pray and meditate;
be prepared for roadblocks; and
reap the benefits of prayer and meditation.

Using the devotions and Bible challenges presented here, you can establish a new routine and change “I’m too busy” to “I’ve found the perfect time in my day to meditate” and “God really doesn’t want to talk to me” to “I have a deep, loving relationship with Jesus.” You can have the relationship you so desperately want, be equipped to embrace a calling for your life, and experience the joy and peace that only Jesus can give.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664241084

Tamera Thoreson

Tamera Thoreson is a Christian author who has been involved in her church and many mission projects and trips both locally and globally. She and her husband have four grown children and two grandchildren and live in Minnesota.

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Copyright © 2021 Tamera Thoreson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®

ISBN: 978-1-6642-4109-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-4110-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-4108-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021914657

WestBow Press rev. date: 08/13/2021

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 God Is Always Teaching Us through His Word and People

Chapter 2 What Is Meditation and Prayer Time?

Chapter 3 Why Do We Meditate and Pray?

Chapter 4 Setting Up Your Space for Success

Chapter 5 The Best Time to Pray or Meditate

Chapter 6 How Do I Start?

Chapter 7 Why We Use the Bible

Chapter 8 Common Roadblocks

Chapter 9 Not All Meditation Is the Same

Chapter 10 The Difference Prayer and Meditation Can Make in Your Life

Chapter 11 Forty Days of Devotions

Acknowledgements

About the Author

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

—Psalm 19:14 (NIV)

To my mother, Veronica, whose example of praying and trusting God with her life was an inspiration to everyone who knew her. She was on her knees every night and prayed all nine of us kids through thick and thin. Her kind personality made it seem easy to forgive all the free-spirited things her children did, but I think she was always seeing the good in everyone. Her last comment to me before she passed into Jesus’s loving arms was this: You were all good kids. When I think about her initial desire to become a nun, which is such an opposite extreme from having nine children, I am so glad she decided having a family was her calling. Nevertheless, God was always her first love—and her spirit runs deep in this book. Thank you, Mom, for teaching us to pray.

Introduction

Welcome to Spending Time with God: The Art of Christian Meditation and Prayer.

My prayer and meditation time has become my favorite part of the day. This routine, where I put my Creator first in my life, has given me a sense of stability and wisdom that was missing before. It is a time where I can feel true joy, be totally myself, open up to a higher being, and feel secure, energized, and loved beyond what the world can give me. This experience is open to anyone who is longing for a deeper relationship with their higher power or wants to strengthen their faith.

Many of the big decisions and inspirations of my life have come out of things the Holy Spirit has put on my heart during this time. As I have been spending devoted time with Jesus, my relationship has grown into a rich, complex, and fulfilling experience. I have been inspired to do things that I am totally unprepared to do, but somehow people come into my life—and everything falls into place.

When sharing my experiences with people about this, so many say they struggle with finding the time or place to pray and meditate. A calling developed in my heart to try to explore solutions to these struggles, and that is what inspired me to write this book. It’s not that people don’t want to spend time with God, there are a multitude of reasons why it isn’t happening for them. By exploring possible reasons and setting yourself up for success, you can have a deep relationship with Him, which will be the most important thing you do all day.

Personally, it has not always been easy to connect with my Creator. I was raised in a Christian family, and even though I didn’t consider my faith to be strong as a youth and teen, I always knew God was there. Looking back, I can see how His power permeated my life.

One of the struggles I had as a youth was that I viewed God just as an authority figure who watched everything I did, judged it, and then punished me or expected me to pay penance if I was not perfect. It was difficult to call Him my friend; subsequently, I did not want to invest in a relationship with Him. I remember times when I was about ten or eleven, where I felt intense fear and feeling like something intangible was there, especially at night, but I didn’t know that I could call on the name of Jesus. If anyone is experiencing anything like this at night, I want you to know the name of Jesus has the power to remove darkness.

In my high school years, like so many teens, I was very vulnerable because I did not have a strong sense of who I was spiritually—and I did not know what God could do. As I grew older and read the Bible for myself, my views changed to more of a loving God who sent His Son to save me, who is above me, but mostly beside me. He is always helping and eagerly forgiving me when I ask.

God put needed people into my life to inspire me to learn more about Him, including my church family, my biological family, and my Bible study friends. As my faith journey went on, I discovered prayer time to be healing, inspiring, and powerful.

Prayer and meditation may be a totally new concept to you—or maybe you are just curious about learning more. Regardless, I hope that by sharing ideas and experiences, all can benefit and grow deeper in our faith.

Whether you are a CEO or a student, you can benefit from carving this time out of your day:

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. (Psalm 32:8)

The wisest people seek counsel from the Lord. Historically, American presidents have sought counsel from spiritual leaders to help them gain wisdom. Going through life without Jesus and trying to figure everything out by yourself is like living life by a dim light. It is like using a matchstick for light when you have the sun.

In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome. (John 1:4–5)

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