by Min. Alicia Teasley
Prayer and meditation go hand in hand. Simply put, prayer is talking to God and meditation is listening to God. Prayer and meditation are conversations and serve as building blocks in the human relationship with the Divine. When we pray, we are entering into the presence of the Most High, we are setting that moment to connect our minds and hearts to God, and we are creating a greater level of intimacy through communication of the heart. Meditation is always described as a doorway or gateway. Through intentionally calming the mind and intentionally breathing, we open a way for the Most High to communicate with us when we are in an active receptive mode. When we step through that gateway we can experience a whole new level of relationship.
Ayi Kweh Armah in his book, Two Thousand Seasons, states: “There is no beauty but in relationships. Nothing cut off by itself is beautiful. Never can things in destructive relationships be beautiful. All beauty is in the creative purpose of our relationships…” There is purpose to prayer. Prayer many times is used like a “honey-do” list of what we as humans want from material things to social/vocational status to blessings to curses even. Perhaps these talking points don’t even reach God’s “ears” because when we connect our mind and heart with the Most High and communicate through the heart, much of the mundane falls away. Have you ever sat down and began to pray and after a few minutes you’ve gone from asking for money to pure praise and thanksgiving, or from self-centered desires to intercession? As humans, we are not always on the vibrational level for Spirit-filled communication; however, many times we get there just by taking the time out to honestly want to connect with the Most High. This is beautiful. This is the relationship that will create.
When we pray, it is beneficial when we know some Divinely inspired words. We can use these words when we pray to reach a resonate frequency right away. For example, if your dealing with defamation of character and one of your favorite passages in the Husia is, ” O Ra, I love you and I have filled my heart with you. You will rescue me from the mouth of the multitude on the day when they speak lies against me. For the Lord of Righteousness lives in righteousness. Thus I will not dwell on the anxiety in my heart, for surely what Ra has said will come to pass.” When you begin to pray, begin here. This will resonate with you and bring you to a level of love and peace which are high vibrational emotions, setting you in an ideal state for Divine communication.
Meditation is the reciprocity of the communication relationship. When we meditate we intend to quiet ourselves and listen. Many may still hear lots of internal chatter; however, that will lesson in volume with time and frequency as we train our ears to listen for the voice of the Most High and let our internal chatter fade into the background. As a gateway to a fuller divine experience, meditation is a key communcation component. Without it, our relationship with the Most High is a bit one-sided, second-handed, and third-party. We can have a relationship without meditation but it’s much like talking with someone who monopolizes the conversation- you get to know them, but they don’t get to know you. You have a relationship but it cannot be as deep or intimate as it could be due to its imbalanced nature. Without meditation, a person can still read what God has to say in books written by others, but does not experience the intimacy of direct communication. You become a third-party to a relationship that should be one-on-one.
Prayer and Meditation go hand in hand. Our desire to get closer in relationship with the Most High takes a bit of work, as all relationships do. The beauty of that work is creativity. It is joy, it is peace, it is faith, self- control, gentleness, goodness, patience and love. How full our spiritual life can become, how purposeful our walk, how intimate our relationship and how loving our demeanor when we intentionally set out to deepen our relationship with the Most High through reciprocal communication of the highest vibration? And how great that would be, for the beauty of our intimate relationship with God to trickle down and permeate like honey, our relationships with each other?