YouTube: Beside Still Waters
Part 2 of 6
“He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.”
The imagery presented in these two lines of the 23rd Psalm is very calming, a wonderful visualization to begin a productive meditation time.
The Psalmist no doubt arrived at this potent visual as the result of his own experience with God. All who experience God come to know the calming, soul restoring influence of the inner light, the inner stillness, and they return to the realm of their affairs with a renewed assurance that all is well, all is in divine order.
Do you feel overwhelmed by some condition in your life? Are you in a frantic struggle to resolve it? Is there some care quietly gnawing away of your peace, perhaps interrupting your sleep, or creating a distraction in your creative, more productive endeavors? Imagine yourself resting in green pastures, sitting calm and serene beside beautiful waters, feeling the restoring presence of Spirit in you imparting new strength, new inspiration, and new enthusiasm from which to meet your day.
The psalmist wrote of an experience that is not only available to us all, it is our most natural state of being. A dedicated effort to return often to this inner center of quiet will cause you to realize throughout your day, that nothing can disturb the calm peace of my soul.
When the temptation to fall into a frantic mode arises, remember the green pastures, the still waters of God’s presence that restore your soul. Move into that calming, healing place, and let new light and energy lift you up to a greater sense of calm, of unwavering confidence in the greater good now unfolding through you.
J Douglas Bottorff 