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Does Meditation Help You Get Closer To God?

Published December 8, 2022 | 6 min read

I once heard that meditation is simply “the rehearsal of the word of God.”

Over the years, I find this simple but powerful statement to be all so true.

Mediation, that rehearsal of the word of God, can take many forms.

For some, meditation is the act of exercise, where a person’s thoughts are clear, and communion with their body is present.

For others, it takes more spiritual forms of movement, such as yoga, where a mantra, or meditative tone is practiced that coincide with actions.

Does Meditation Help You Get Closer To God?

For me, meditation is done by reading texts I find to be holders of truth.

In my book, The Invitation to Love, I talk about some of those powerful text that I used to keep me on course.

Good reads circumvent the noise that has populated my mind for years.

The voice of:

doubt
low-self worth
insecurity

I am confident we are all plagued with these feelings.

We each are asked to take responsibility for how we will silence those voices and move in the space of being the full expression of ourselves.

Each morning, I open up my favorite books before I do anything else.

I take at least ten minutes to read, sit with, and journal on what those things mean for me.

It is amazing; some of these books I have read seven or eight times.

Without fail, with each read, I pick up something new.

That is the great thing about powerful texts; they continue to meet you wherever you are on life’s journey.

How to find good reads?

First, I think it is necessary to get honest with yourself.

Ask yourself what is it I need to respond to.

For some who read this, fear pervades your life and sabotages your relationships.

For others, long years ago, you abandoned your relationship with your body and find yourself out of shape, out of balance, and feeling less and less like yourself.

With fear, find opportunities to engage with reads that speak to the spirit and faith.

These will be great companions along the way—remember that courage is not the absence of fear but simply the act of moving despite it.

For those who have found themselves met with a body worn from years of neglect, I recommend reading a text on love.

Whether single or married, we are all in a relationship with a wonderful lover: ourselves.

Finding text that can help you understand why the relationship with your body has been neglected will be a helpful aide.

While reading this, I can see how some could question, “is he just promoting a liturgy of self-help books?”

My answer to that question is no.

If this were about self-help, I would say to read a book about overcoming fear.

If this were about self-help, I would recommend reading a book on exercising more and eating less.

What I am asking you to consider is not about self-help.

It is about self love, the deep soul-churning practice of becoming in tune with yourself, using meditation not as a guide to help, but used as an instrument to heal.

Once I got a hold of what meditations true purpose was in my life, I had to get a hold of my commitment to the practice.

It does not matter if it is yoga, a morning mantra, or a good read.

Any new practice will ask for our resolve and commitment.

It took me years to really master the art of reading, reflecting, and journaling as a three-part solution for peace.

I had to first get that I was going to fall off the bandwagon, that a solid week of meditation did not mean that it was now a lifelong habit.

I had to embrace the days when I was running late and did not get my morning read in.

Also, I had to learn that failure would be part of the journey and take comfort in knowing that I could recalibrate and start over.

Beyond commitment is our friend faith.

How faith in God and meditation go together

When I first started the practice of meditation, I would get distracted.

Sometimes even irritated, thinking about all the things I could do that would be more productive usages of my time than sitting reading a book.

After months of practicing meditation, I noticed a shift; I saw my life working in ways it hadn’t worked before.

I noticed how I was responding more effectively to those around me.

And finally, I saw that living in my truth was becoming easier and easier.

Meditation started becoming less and less of a practice and more and more of a friend.

Over the years, meditation has become my confidant, my space of counsel, and the force that raises the volume of my inner voice.

In a world riddled with fear, plagued by the comfort of the mundane, and many of us doing the dance to play small in our lives, we need that meditative space to continue to move forward.

Despite the temptation to do otherwise.

So there is discerning the practice, making the commitment, acting from faith, and then seeing the results.

How meditation and God acted in my life and can in yours

In my life, the results of meditation have been what have helped me determine a career path.

Meditation offered clarity when I had to make big decisions, like moving to my current home in Chicago.

It helped me respond with love when others’ pain, fear, and envy clouded my heart with bitterness and sadness.

Meditation has offered me benefits that go beyond any blog I could write.

Simply put, like with any relationship, the benefits took time.

The spiritual seeds planted within meditation had to be watered consistently before bearing fruit.

Thank you for reading my thoughts on meditation.

As I said earlier, I believe that meditation is the rehearsal of the word of God.

For me, that rehearsal is sitting with good text, those books, articles, and passages that speak to truth.

When I meditate and sit in a place of peace (for however short or long it last), I know I have hit the truth—because the truth is where perfect peace lives.