God-Awareness

 Devotion 10 - God-Awareness 

A simple one-word definition of mindfulness would be “awareness”. In our present-day culture, many of us are inclined to rush through our daily life at a breathless pace, multitasking several things simultaneously with our brains overloaded. We tend to live an overstimulated life and are constantly preoccupied.  And instead of governing our thoughts, we become prisoners of our thoughts as we are not consciously aware of what dominates our thought life.  

We have often lost ourselves in the addictions of busyness for it gives us a false sense of self-worth, self-significance and self-importance. Times of quietness alone with oneself have become a great challenge, and something many people are fearful of. We had forgotten how to live meaningfully and deeply and to savour the abundant life that Christ had come to give us. Instead of living God’s purpose-driven life, we are unconsciously and mindlessly driven by the values and standards of the world, living in weariness over a chronically over-scheduled, scattered and fragmented life.

 

Jesus’s Teaching on Awareness

Throughout the scripture, we are highly exhorted to give conscious awareness of what God is doing in our midst.

Mk.4:9 - “And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

 

Matt.13:16 - “But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear…”

 

In the book of Revelation, Jesus again repeated this concept seven times (Rev.2:7,11,17,29; 3:6,13,22)

 

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches…”

 

Unfortunately, we often only give surface awareness to His Word and to what His Spirit is doing in our midst. In our busyness, we tend to sleepwalk through life in a stupor, never really paying much attention nor giving awareness to our daily living. Hence, unintentionally and mindlessly, we have subtly conformed ourselves to the worldview of the world without recognising it.

Intentional Christian mindfulness helps slow down our thought process to focus on what is truly important, so as to anchor and nourish us in the purposes of God. Our life will be one rooted and grounded in love, joy, peace, and not anxiety and fear. We are not anxiety-free or even anxiety-averse, but we are anxiety-aware. This means that anxiety is a reality but not a lifestyle. A life that is connected to those we love, and what is important, not disembodied and distracted easily by the tyranny of the urgent. Christian mindfulness empowers us to live a God-accompanied life as it constantly transports us back to “Be still and know that He is God” (Ps.46:10)

It disciplines us to stop living life with a performance mentality and to start living life in flow with God’s spirit. It decreases our sense of fragmentation and misery in an increasingly fragmented world. It prevents us from having self-absorbed thoughts, helps us to discern and cut the distractions from our over-informed age, in order to attend to the things that truly matter, thus, training us to care for our souls well in the process. Mindfulness wakes us up to resurrection life and connects us with God’s presence at the joyful core of who we are.

 

Self-Awareness

Col.1:27 – “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

 

True self-awareness is developed in our deep relationship with God. One of the aims of the practice of Christian mindfulness is to build mental muscles to focus on God, the hope of glory so that we are not easily distracted by destructive thoughts and feelings.

When we submit our capacity for awareness to the Holy Spirit, it facilitates us to be “renewed in the spirit of our mind” (Eph.4:23).  In letting go of potentially destructive thoughts and feelings, it conditions us to cultivate the attitude and mind of Christ within us. Our spiritual awareness opens us towards Christ, to experience a greater encounter with the reality of who God is and the transforming power of Christ within.  We can become more aware of the Person who has come to live in us and walk with us through all of life’s journey. It helps us to be consciously aware of His omnipresence in the present moment!

 

Awareness of Temptation

“You can’t stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from making a nest in your hair” – Martin Luther

Through mindfulness, we can discern and observe the first thought of temptation and watch it come and go out of awareness.  We do not pretend it is not there, but we do not pursue the thought further to cultivate a destructive pattern. In psychological terminology, it is possible to fuse or defuse negative or destructive thoughts.  Fusion involves more closely identifying with and coming into agreement with these thoughts and allowing a pattern to be cultivated and accepted in the mind.  Diffusion involves stepping back, observing the thoughts or feelings, and watching them come and go.

Mindfulness is not detachment but rather acceptance, which helps us to connect with ourselves. It creates an access point of awareness where we can bring our emotional pain and wrong ways of thinking into the light of God, in order for us to receive healing and wholeness in Christ.  Acceptance, in this sense, allows the mind to embrace the true and deep understanding of how things really are. It also helps us to recognise the trigger, so that we are less likely to make a knee-jerk reaction to any situation, and it encourages us to explore alternative responses to bring about a more desirable outcome.

1 Thess. 5:17 - “Pray without ceasing…”

 

Perhaps this means an ongoing awareness of God throughout each day. The goal of Christian mindfulness is God-awareness, it empowers us to live more deeply in God’s presence and ​holds us accountable to God’s mission in the world beyond our institutions and churches. It empowers us to intentionally live out His reign in our lives.