Welcome to election day. Our whole country is on edge. Today’s NYTimes even included a “voter’s guide to stress free eating” and invited us to take a five minute meditation.

Meditation is valuable — even from the NYTimes. But they miss a final step. They breathe everything out of the body. Centering on ourselves. But we are left empty. Christian Mediation begins the same way. Breathing out anxiety (at least that is what I breathe out today!), then breathing in Jesus.

So I want to invite you into a moment of meditation. You could use the NYTimes meditation as a calming start. Or simply sit and allow all your body to still. Breathe out all that is inside – your worries, your busyness, your anger, your confusion…

Then breathe in the end of Romans 8. Read the verses and follow the prompt.

• v28 ~ “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…”
  • God is not the cause of all the sin and chaos in this world. But in all things God is working to bring salvation. Imagine God at work in the current moment.
• v31 ~ “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
  • As you picture God at work. Remember God is bigger than all our fears and danger. He is bigger than the world’s boogiemen.
• v37-39 ~ “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
  • Read these verses slowly. Three Times.
  • Pause in silence.
  • Close with “Amen”. This is a greek word, ἀμήν amen, that means truly. When we conclude our prayer with it, we declare our prayer true!