In his sermon, Steve Hopkins emphasizes the importance of the prosperity of the soul over worldly prosperity, anchored by the verse 3 John 2. He argues that the most vital prosperity is the soul's flourishing in union with Christ, which can be achieved through meditation, prayer, and engagement with God's word. Hopkins references Alexander McLaren's challenging questions about aligning spiritual and worldly prosperity, urging believers to prioritize spiritual growth. The sermon highlights the finite nature of life and presents meditation as a critical practice for spiritual prosperity, drawing examples from biblical figures like David and Isaac. Hopkins outlines two types of meditation: spontaneous (occasional) meditation, which is inspired by daily encounters, and deliberate meditation, which involves setting aside specific times for reflection. He uses examples from David's and Mary's lives to demonstrate how meditation can be integrated into busy lives. Moreover, the sermon addresses how meditation helps during trials, offering guidance on how to meditate during challenging times. Hopkins encourages believers to make meditation a regular practice, to seek God's guidance in understanding scripture, and to use meditation to find comfort and direction in their lives. He concludes with a call to meditate on the life and return of Christ, reinforcing the eternal significance of spiritual prosperity.

Let's stand for the reading of the Word of the Lord. Third John, verse 2, Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. Let's pray. Father, as we begin this, our third and final session on the topic of meditation, God, we wanna begin by praising you, Lord, for your goodness and for your grace and your mercy. Lord, we're not worthy of the least of all the mercies and the truth that you've shown us, but we thank you for it.

And God, we ask once again that the Spirit might be given in power to guide us in the way of truth, and to open our hearts to receive the truth, that we might be changed more to the image and likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ this day. For we ask it in his holy and blessed name, amen. Let's be seated. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospers. I don't think there's probably anyone here today who would say, you know, I don't want to prosper, I don't want to be in good health.

Of course not. But John really really puts things in their proper perspective here when he writes to Gaius, brother in the faith, in 3 John verse 2, when he writes to him, I wish above all things, regarding in every situation, that you may prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospers even as your soul prospers And note in my Bible commenting on this passage says, quote, the most important prosperity is the flourishing of the soul. Would you agree? The most important prosperity is the flourishing of the soul in union with Christ. I've been thinking a lot about the brevity of life lately and talking to the man that helped us with the house so much and poured that big rock that we're sitting on.

And I said, how many tons of concrete are there? He figured it all up and he said, there's 450 tons of concrete in that rock that we're sitting on. And you know what? It's going to outlast every single person in this room. Life is short.

Life is short. The prosperity of the soul matters more than anything. And as it relates to our topic before us, meditation, I can't think of any daily means by which our souls could possibly flourish in union with Christ any more than by getting alone with God in prayer, reading His word, and meditating on His word. Can you? I can't.

Scottish Baptist minister Alexander McLaren was a contemporary of Charles Spurgeon and he asked some questions, some more questions of us with regards to this passage from 3rd John. McLaren asks, how would you like that standard, okay? I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. How would you like that standard applied to your worldly prosperity? Would you like, for instance, not to get on any better in business than you do in religion?

That is in the prosperity of your soul, your spiritual growth, your spiritual prosperity. He says, would you be content that your limbs, talking about your body, should be no more healthy than your soul? Or that you should be making no more advances in worldly happiness and material prosperity than you are in the divine life. It's kind of getting to it here. McLaren continues with this very pointed question, would you be content to have your worldly prosperity doled out to you out of the same spoon of the same dimensions with which you are content to receive your spiritual prosperity.

McLaren is trying to help us get our priorities in line. And he's willing to cut us with the sword of the Spirit in order to do it. This is the Word of God. Like a surgeon, you know, cuts out a rotting or cancerous piece of flesh in order that the whole might survive. If it means that we would be better off afterwards for the sake of being cut.

Again, McLaren writes, quote, It is always a disastrous thing for Christian people when outward prosperity gets ahead of inward prosperity. Do you agree with that? It is the ruin of a good many so-called Christian people. And then he ends here, when a man gets on in the world, everybody wants to do well in their business, right? Everybody wants to do well and prosperity.

They want to, I want to advance my business. I want to get nicer things, nicer house, I want to make more money, whatever way, everybody wants to do that and there's nothing wrong with that. But he says when a man gets on in the world he begins too often to decline in the truth. It is difficult for us to carry a full cup without spilling it. John says, above all things, I would that you would prosper and be in good health even as your soul prosper.

The health of the soul came first in the Apostle's mind. That's another writer put it. When there is that, when there is inward prosperity of the soul, then and Only then he could wish for outward prosperity and bodily health to support it. Is that where we're at? Is the spiritual prosperity, the prosperity of our souls, is that in the first place?

Is it in your first place? It is your priority. Would your life bear that out? Would the actions of your life bear that out? That spiritual prosperity is first.

Again, McLaren, the best thing is that the soul should be more prosperous than the body. And of course, brothers and sisters, that requires a shift in priorities. Prioritizing spiritual prosperity over temporal and earthly prosperity and bodily prosperity requires of us time alone with God and his word and prayer and meditation. If I put the prosperity of my soul above that of my earthly and temporal prosperity won't I suffer financially? Jesus answered that question.

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. All these things shall be added unto you. We had in our last session looking at some very busy people in the Bible. We looked at the life of David And I noted, look, he wasn't a beggar, wasn't a poor man. He was engaged in monetary pursuits.

He had assets, investments, he owned lands, fields, flocks, herds. He had all kinds of things to attend to. And yet he says in Psalm 119, oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day." What? How can that be?

He wasn't only engaged in various financial enterprises, remember, he was the king of Israel, all the duties of governing the entire nation and fighting their wars. Yet David found time to meditate. So can we. David brought his thoughts and meditations back to God continually throughout the daylight hours. And not only throughout the daylight hours, he also made time to deliberately meditate on God and His word at night.

Remember Psalm 63, 6, I will remember thee upon my bed and meditate on you. And the night watches, my eyes prevent that the precede the night watches. You know what the night watches were, right? So you go to bed at six, then you have maybe a bell or a trumpet, I'm not sure what they use, that would go off at nine, and then at 12, and then at three. So you have these night watches.

David's taking those opportunities to, you know, wakes up and and he's using that time to meditate. I'm gonna meditate probably as he's falling back to sleep. But he says my eyes prevented the night watches. It probably got to the place where it's like, You know, your mind goes off before your alarm goes off, right? Wakes you up.

How many have that happened? He says that I might meditate in your word. Psalm 119. 48. David with his extremely busy schedule finds time to meditate throughout the day, bringing his thoughts back to God throughout the day, and even at times laying on his bed at night.

And so can we. Then we looked at a New Testament example, the account of two sisters living in the same home, Martha and Mary in Luke chapter 10. And we read there that Martha was encumbered with many things. They were good things. They were necessary things.

But she was encumbered by those things from doing what she needed to be doing. She was doing good things, housework. I mean, that's what she's doing, housework. She's serving her family. But there is Mary sitting at the feet of her Lord.

And how does Jesus respond to Martha? Martha, Martha, you're so full of cares and troubled about so many things. One thing is needful and Mary has chosen that good part and it's not gonna be taken from her. And it won't be taken from you either when you prioritize sitting at the feet of Jesus. Only God might grant us this very day that our chief concern in the fleeting days of the short and uncertain life in which we live might be the prosperity of our souls.

Amen. So, in our remaining time together this afternoon, what I hope to do is to get really practical as to how we do this. If we've come to that place where we've said, okay, I'm resolved to meditate on God and His Word. I'm there. I wasn't there last Sunday.

I wasn't there the Sunday before. Maybe, you know, but I'm there now. But what does daily meditation look like? How do I get started? You know, I said last week, I don't want to in any way talk down to anyone in the congregation here.

There may be veterans of meditation sitting in this church house that could come up here right now and instruct me on this and I would gladly listen. But there are some who probably are just getting started and they need the basics. So I want us to begin by looking at two types of meditation every Christian should be engaging in daily and then we'll look at a third that just is natural. The Puritans labeled these, they termed these two types of meditation every Christian should be engaging in. Occasional meditation and deliberate meditation.

How many have heard those terms? Occasional meditation and deliberate meditation. Okay, so first occasional meditation. I prefer to use the term spontaneous meditation on this one because when you use the term occasional meditation It sounds like well I occasionally meditate and that's not what the Puritans had in mind occasional or spontaneous Meditation as I call it is that meditation where the things that we encounter in day-to-day life bring our thoughts back to God and to pondering the things of God in His Word. I'll give you a couple of examples of occasional or spontaneous meditation.

This last week, a cold front blows in. How many were chilled to the bone? We're building fires in the fireplace again. So it's blowing in, the wind's pretty stout. I step out of my bus and it's just kind of starting to kick in there.

The wind is starting to blow through the trees and my mind immediately goes to the words of Jesus in John chapter 3 where he's talking to Nicodemus And he's talking about the wind. He says the wind blows where it wills. You can hear the sound thereof. You can't tell where it comes from. You don't know where it's going.

So it is with the Spirit of God. So it is with the operation of the Spirit of God. So it is with everyone that's born of the Spirit. The Spirit works as He chooses upon the hearts of men. That's spontaneous meditation.

Your thoughts were brought back to the things of God because of something that you experienced, something that you saw, and that should be happening with us every day on different occasions throughout the day. And then we should thank God, thank you Lord for the wind, how it brings our thoughts and our meditations back to you. Throughout the day, something we see, something we remember, maybe from a sermon or a scripture passage, spontaneously brings our thoughts back to God and we begin to think on Him or on His word or begin to consider His works. That's a spontaneous meditation. David, another example, does this in Psalm chapter 8 where he says, When I consider thy heavens and the works of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained.

So you're just out there at night and you just look up and you see the moon and the stars, that God called them into existence from nothing. And then the passage comes to mind. When I consider your heavens, when I consider the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you've ordained, I think what is man that you're even mindful of him? And yet you are. What is man that you are even mindful of, or even consider him, and yet you do?

God receives glory as we meditate upon him, and the wonders of God and His power and His omnipotence, His creative power displayed in the heavens and were brought to meditation and to praise. Another example of spontaneous meditation, maybe you get up in the morning and you step out onto the porch and you're about to go out to work and you see the first light of day and you think, wow, Jesus is the light of the world. Passage just comes to your mind, just floods your mind. Jesus is the light of the world. And he said that, and he said that he that follows after him shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life, spontaneous meditation.

You're brought back to thinking on the things of God. Don't let those escape you. Don't let those times get away from you. Ask God to give you more of them. In so many ways, our thoughts are spontaneously brought to meditation on God and his word throughout the day.

And then second, there is that meditation that is intentional. We don't rely upon just, well, spontaneity. What the Puritans called deliberate meditation, by which they meant specific set-apart times for meditation. We're believers, we've been talking about this for two weeks, set aside a time or times each day to get alone with God and meditate on Him and on His works and on His Word. In Genesis 24 63 we read that Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide.

That's deliberate. That's his set aside time. Isaac, okay, I'm going out. This is what I do. I'm going out in the evening.

Somebody's, like I said last week, maybe a morning person, maybe an evening person for meditation. He's an evening person. I'm going out in the field to meditate in the even tide. That's deliberate. He set aside that time.

He went. He got along with God to meditate This is what Isaac was doing when Rebecca shows up on the hill his wife He was in the field at even tide or at evening and he was meditating and the inference here is that this is was Isaac's daily practice. There's no cell phones. There's no mention here, you know, there's no carrier pigeons bringing him, you know, daily news. Here's, You know, I did this today and I found this girl at the camel.

She the camel well or whatever. She brought water and he's not getting any of this. He's just staying the course. He's just got his set time for meditation. And in that time of meditation, she appears on the hill with Abraham's servant.

Isaac was doing what he needed to be doing while he was waiting on a wife. And God was working all things together for his good. Isaac's working, he's doing everything he needs to do to prepare for a wife, but his priorities were in line. Are your priorities in line? The spiritual prosperity of your souls, the prosperity of your souls.

He was concerned for the prosperity of the soul, and he scheduled a time in the evening for meditation. First things first. Supplies to all of us, first things first. Husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, grandparents, we need to be engaging in deliberate daily meditation. So how do we do this thing of meditation once we've determined to do it?

Here's what you do. You get alone with God in a place where you won't be interrupted or disturbed. Probably have to shut your cell phone off or leave it in another room. And you open the Word, take your Bible with you, you open the Word, maybe you read a chapter or two and you select the verse and you focus on that verse. And you ask God to help you to focus on that verse.

And you ask God to help you not let your mind to wonder from it because the mind will attempt to wonder from it. And if your mind wanders, You know, it helps for sure to focus on memorizing that passage for a few minutes. You pray, Lord, I need the Holy Spirit to help me to understand, help me to understand what I'm reading, help me to understand it, help me to apply it to my life, to my marriage, if you're married, to my family's life, to my employment, to my church, to everything, every area of life. Help me to apply this to me, oh Lord. Open my understanding, to understand the things that I'm reading.

And then you turn it over in your mind. You ponder it from every angle you can think of. You know, and if you're having any trouble with it, if you have a commentary in your Bible, you might look up what the commentary says. And if you don't have a commentary in your Bible, you could look up the passage on the internet, you know, maybe with Matthew Henry's commentary, put the verse and then Matthew Henry, put the verse and then John Gill, you know, commentary, and then get back to turning it over in your mind and ask God to help you to receive instruction from it and encouragement from it and inspiration from it and conviction of sin concerning it when necessary and then speak to yourself concerning it as the Puritans would say and make some resolutions concerning it. In other words, there's a goal here.

You want to be spiritually nourished. You want to be spiritually changed. You want to be prospering spiritually. And so the purists would say, well, then make some, when you've read it and you've taken it in and you've turned it over, you make some resolutions now concerning it. Resolutions are like, Lord, your word that I've just read says this, and I'm resolved to obey it and conform my life to it.

Even if it hurts for your glory, A resolution is a resolve to change. It's a determination of the mind to reform something in your life and conform to Christ and his character and image. Lord, use this to make me more like Jesus. An example, the great Princeton theologian, Jonathan Edwards, he wrote these when he was a teenager, not 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, most of them when he was 13 years old. Please read the resolutions of this 13 year old boy.

One of them went like this, resolved that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die. Resolved I will never do anything which I would be afraid to do if I expected that it would be less than an hour before I should hear the last trumpet sound. In other words, Christ's return. That's a couple of them put together a little bit loosely, but you get the idea. Maybe Edwards was meditating on a passage that concerned death.

Puritans did all the time. They meditated on death. It's coming for every one of us. Or on the coming judgment. Or on hell.

And maybe this resolution was a response of him speaking to his own soul concerning the conviction he was under after meditating. Now, if a 13-year-old can make resolutions while meditating on God and his word, we also can. Okay? If a 13-year-old can do it, we can do it. Okay, now let me make a suggestion that might be helpful to some.

This is just something I do. Throw it out if it's not helpful. But one of the things I do when I'm lying in bed meditating on God's Word is to take every word of a passage from the first to the last that I'm meditating on and put the emphasis on each word with the hopes of squeezing as much juice out of the grape as possible. I'll use Psalm 23 as an example. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.

Everyone knows the verse. So I'm laying there and I'll just emphasize the first word like this, the. The Lord is my shepherd, not a Lord. The one and only Lord is my shepherd. Then I go to the second word, the Lord is my shepherd.

The Lord who created the heavens and the earth from nothing and other passages you know about the Lord will come to mind. The Lord of all creation is my shepherd. The Lord apart from whom nothing was created that was created and for whom all things were created is my shepherd. The Lord by whom all things consist, the Lord Jesus Christ is my shepherd. How wonderful the thought.

That's just the first two words. And then the next word, the Lord is my shepherd. I have no doubt. He is my shepherd. He is my shepherd.

And then the next word, the Lord is my shepherd. He's my shepherd. Personally, he is personally my shepherd. Oh, the thought of it that the one who is shepherding me ever caring for me, leading me, protecting me, always there for me. The Lord Jesus is the shepherd of my soul.

And therefore, I shall not want all I need now or ever is in him. I will lack nothing that is truly good for me and neither will you in life or in death. Because the Lord is your shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd. I hope that's helpful just to break down a passage you select to meditate on word for word and meditate on every aspect of the passage. So what do we have?

So we have spontaneous meditation throughout the day, right? We got that down. We got deliberate meditation. That's set aside specific time each day to meditate on God and His word. But third, listen to this.

Everyone's gonna identify with this, okay? We have special times where meditation is especially needed. We have specific trials that we face, every one of us, right? We've got things we're facing. Everything's going smoothly one day and the next day everything's upside down.

We're all singing Christmas hymns and gifts and everything and December's just, And then January goes boom and it just turns everything's upside down. Maybe sickness, maybe family trials, situations, everything's upside down in an instant. These are times that drive us or should drive us to a meditation. When these times are upon us, there's the need to meditate on passages of scripture that relate to our particular trial. So you look for something that's specific to what it is that you're going through, you know, that will help bring inside or comfort in the various situations.

Maybe you're under a heavy burden, as you think, I just can't bear this, and you need to meditate on passages like Psalm 5522, cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee. Or maybe you're anxious about the future and you need to meditate on passages like Matthew 6 24, take no thought Jesus said of tomorrow, Tomorrow will take thought for the things of itself. Or maybe you're experiencing, you know, depression or discouragement, and maybe you need to meditate on a passage like Psalm 42. Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime. Just meditate on it.

And in the night, his song shall still be with me. By the way, I encourage listening to Christian music to help bring your thoughts and your meditations back to God. You wanna defy the passage that says, think on these things once for everything is just and pure. Listen to the world's music and your mind will be consumed with the world's music. Listen to the praises of God and sing them.

Make melody in your heart to the Lord, the Bible says. Make melody in your heart to the Lord. We wonder sometimes why we have those great lows in our life. But the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime and the night. His song shall still be with me.

His song. Bring that song back to mind. Why art thou cast down on my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me, hoping God? For I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God." Or maybe we lie in bed at night, we can't seem to fall asleep, or we wake up and we can't get back to sleep.

Anybody? It's hard to get to sleep. You wake up and you can't get back to sleep. You ever wake up and can't get back to sleep? I do.

I ask God to help me to get the rest I need, trusting in His word, meditating on Psalm 127.2, for so he giveth his beloved sleep. But then I immediately start quoting and meditating on passages of scripture so that even if I can't get back to sleep right away, the sleepless nights are profitable for my soul because the profit of the soul is the most important thing. And if you lay there and you start thinking about tomorrow, well, I gotta get this done tomorrow, whatever, and then family problems and trials and they're true, you're never gonna get back to sleep, and there's no prophet to the soul. Now, you gotta set your mind on the things of God and meditate upon His Word. Otherwise your mind will run to troubling or vain thoughts.

David meditated day and night, remember? Psalm 1, 2. Or maybe you're dealing with some seemingly unbearable temptation And you need to meditate on passages like 1 Corinthians 10 13, we all know, or James 1 12 through 16. There's no temptation that's taken you, but such is common to man. Everybody goes through this.

God is faithful. He won't suffer you or permit you to be tempted above what you're able. With the temptation, he's also going to make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. And blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life. What comfort is there in this, which the Lord has promised to them that love him.

Meditate on his word in these specific situations. Or maybe the situation is guilt from past sins that we've long ago confessed and forsaken that come back to haunt our consciences. And maybe we need to meditate on passages like, and you who were dead in your sins, had he quickened, made alive, together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against you, against us, against me. I was preaching on that on the street a couple weeks ago, blotting out the handwriting of an ordinary I'll take this rabbit trail handwriting of ordinances that was against us it's talking about blotting out every line of the ledger detailing our sins is that comforting it is to me imagine that big you know you got that nobody even knows what these things are, we're in the electronic age. You got the big ink pad and the big blotter or whatever and here's your list.

And this is the things that they're coming back to haunt you. Your former sins that you confessed and forsaken, you're not living in that, loving that, wanting to continue in it, hiding it. You confessed it and you've forsaken it. You got this list, this long list that it comes back to haunt you. The devil wants it to haunt you.

He doesn't want you to have peace. And you just remember when Christ forgave that sin, that blotter, he took and blotted them out of existence. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. Maybe you just need to sit and to meditate on that passage. That he's blotted out every line of the ledger, detailing your sins, every line item that was contrary to you.

That is, that was leveled, written in the books against you. And it says, and he took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. Where's it gonna go from there? Nailed the Christ's cross, and now you're still going to be concerned about it, worried about it, troubled about it, consciously afflicted about it? It's gone.

End of story, guilt be gone. As far as the East is from the West, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Or maybe our assurance is lacking. We need to meditate on passages like 1 John 3 20. If our heart condemns us, guess what?

God is greater than our heart. Amen? God is greater than our heart. Or Romans 10 11, whoever believes on him shall not be put to shame. Shall not.

Emphatic, it's not gonna happen. Maybe health is failing us. Psalm 73 26. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. I'm going to meditate on that passage.

My flesh and my heart may fail. One day it will for every one of us. But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73 26. Could be anything.

Financial distresses, Philippians 419. I've been young, now I'm old. I've never seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging bread in the streets. My God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Meditate on the Word of God in those situations that are specific to what your trial or adversity or affliction is at that particular time.

That could go on and on. Relationship issues, difficulty with forgiving or asking forgiveness. We need to be getting along with God in these special times. The meditative passages that are specific to the things we're going through at various times in our lives. And brothers and sisters, as we come to a close, sometimes we need to just sit in God's presence alone and be quiet and meditate on God without saying a word.

That passage that says be still and know that I am God, you know, Psalm 46 10, it's not talking about being still in the sense of being peaceful. So that's what it's talking about. Certainly we should be still, we should be peaceful, but that isn't what it's talking about. It means to just stop and be quiet. Dr.

Sproul says in the modern vernacular, it means to just shut up and know that He is the Lord God. David says in Psalm 10434, my meditation of Him shall be sweet. Sometimes we need to just sit in silence, and in silence meditate on God, His infinite greatness, His infinite powers, His wisdom, His glory, His goodness, His mercy, His covenant faithfulness, His unbounded love for us. We should meditate on the Father whose electing love called us and drew us to His Son, or we never would have come. We should meditate on the Holy Spirit.

By His operation and power, we were raised from death to life and born again to life everlasting and we should meditate on Christ and His glory on His person and on His work. You will never fail by defaulting to meditation on Christ in his glory. Never. And what he's done for you. In reconciling you to God, at bearing your sins and your guilt and your shame and seeing him suffering and dying in your place and rising from the dead and ascending to heaven, brothers and sisters, meditate on Christ, remember.

I've often wondered if there could possibly be any with little interest in Christ on earth who will be among those who have any interest in Him in heaven. I don't say that to hurt anyone, but I wonder is it possible that there will be those on earth who really didn't have any enjoyment in Christ on earth, who will enjoy Him forever in heaven. It's something to consider. Paul speaks in 2nd Timothy 4, 8 of the crown of righteousness that awaits all those who love his appearing. Do you eagerly anticipate his coming?

Meditate on Christ. I'll end with this quote from Spurgeon. Christians, be ever watching and waiting for the second coming of your Lord Jesus Christ. And while you wait, meditate on that coming. Think, oh my soul, of that Augusta day when thou shalt see him with all his glorious train coming to call the world to judgment and to avenge himself upon his enemies.

Think of all his triumphs when Satan shall be bound and death shall be crushed, hell shall be conquered, and when he shall be greeted as the universal monarch, God over all, blessed forever. Amen. My meditation of him shall be sweet. Brothers and sisters, I believe that when we get to heaven, he says we shall want and no subject for meditation there except Jesus Christ. There will be little else we shall want of heaven besides Him.

He'll be our bread, He'll be our food, our beauty, our glorious dress. The atmosphere of all heaven will be Christ. Everything in heaven will be Christ-like. Yes, Christ is the heaven of his people. To be in Christ and to be with Christ is the essence of heaven.

Meditate on him. Let's pray. Father, oh God, help us to meditate throughout the day on the things we encounter spontaneously and bring our thoughts continually back to you and your word. Help us, God, to set aside time each day to be alone with you to meditate on you and your word. Help us to meditate on you and your word when we when we lie on our beds at night.

Help us to meditate on you and your word when special trials of this life unfold before us. And help us God to just sit at times and be still, quiet, and know that you are the Lord God, and make us more like Christ in the process. Oh God, And may all of your people prosper and be in good health, even as their souls prosper. For we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.