74. Find Peace Through Biblical Meditation and Mindfulness with Virginia Lefler

In this episode, we explore the transformative practice of Biblical meditation with Virginia Lefler. Virginia shares how meditation helps us connect with our own heart with God, going beyond the surface level of our minds to find deeper resolution, peace, and healing. Virginia has identified six simple yet powerful steps of Biblical meditation to guide you as you practice.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
• What Biblical meditation is and how it helps us connect more deeply with our own heart with God, fostering healing, resolution, and peace.
• The six steps of Biblical meditation:

1. Retreat – Find a quiet place to focus, just like Jesus did.
2. Read – Read a scripture aloud to absorb God’s word more deeply.
3. Reflect – Contemplate the scripture, letting the Holy Spirit highlight what stands out to you.
4. Request – Pray for wisdom to understand God’s heart and look for His invitation in the scripture.
5. Respond – Identify your emotions and feelings, then share them with God in prayer.
6. Remember – Take something from the meditation to carry with you, helping you stay connected to God throughout your day.

• How Biblical meditation can bring emotional resolution, and a closer connction with God.
• A guided meditation practice to help you begin integrating these steps into your daily life.

Scriptures and Bible Verses Mentioned:
• Isaiah 55:11
“So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
• Philippians 4:6-7
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Free Guide: Anchor Yourself in God

If you’re looking to declutter your heart and create space for a deeper relationship with God, I’ve created a free guide to help you meditate on scriptures that bring peace, strength, and comfort. Download the Anchor Yourself in God Guide to begin your journey toward greater peace and connection with God.

Connect with Virginia Lefler:

Virginia offers a wealth of wisdom and support for those looking to deepen their spiritual practice. You can connect with her and explore more on her website

Words of Encouragement:

Virginia’s approach to Biblical meditation emphasizes the importance of moving beyond our minds to connect with our hearts and God. It’s through this deeper connection that we find healing and peace, as we open ourselves to God’s presence and His transformative word. Remember, this practice is not about perfection—it’s about meeting God where you are and allowing His truth to guide you to resolution and growth.

Thank you for tuning in! Please spread the word and share this episode with someone whom you think might benefit from it!

May this episode inspire you to practice Biblical meditation and deepen your relationship with God’s heart, leading to lasting peace and healing. 

Much love!

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Transcript

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Welcome to curious for Christ. Welcome back for those who have been with me for some time. In today's episode, we'll explore. The powerful practice of biblical meditation and mindfulness. Uh, way to quiet our minds and our hearts connect deeply with God and step out of the doubts and anxieties that often cripple us. Through this practice we can enter into God's presence where peace and clarity await. And stay tuned because later in the episode, we'll experience a guided practice with our guests, Virginia Leffler. To help you begin applying this inward practice to your own life. Virginia has been walking with Jesus for over 50 years and she brings a wealth of wisdom to today's conversation. She is the author of Bible meditation and mindfulness. A gentle and quiet spirit. Pursuing purity and spiritual beauty. And she is the co author of spiritual discovery, seven principles for spiritual growth. She also offers guided meditation through her website. Bible meditation.com. Virginia has a deep passion for teaching the transformative power of biblical meditation. And I'm so excited to dive into this topic with her. Let's begin. Welcome to Curious for Christ. Do you ever find yourself lying awake at night, wondering about God's plan for your life? Maybe you wake up with big dreams, but feel unsure where to start or what your next step should be. If you're curious about exploring your faith and finding purpose, then you've come to the right place. Hi, I'm Alexandra. I too felt lost, unsure of the direction my life was taking. I yearned to understand my purpose and have someone guide me. But I kept telling myself I was too busy, the timing wasn't right, and my lack of clarity prevented me from being consistent, until I found Christ. He brought peace into my life and revealed the way to find purpose, by anchoring myself in Him. In this podcast, we'll journey together exploring the Bible to gain a deeper understanding of Him and cultivate your own personal relationship with Christ. So open up your Bible, put in those earbuds and listen up because God is speaking to you. He is making everything new and you don't want to miss it. Let's get started. If you're like many of the women that I work with, you might have tried to walk this path of spiritual growth alone, but when emotions or situations arise, it can feel difficult to stay on track. I understand how hard it can be to trust God fully, especially when anxiety doubts and the pressures of life. Try to take over. But you don't have to do it at all. Together. We can create a path where God is your first priority and everything else flows from that. If you're ready to seek clarity, purpose, and consistent peace, I'd love to help you stay connected with God and live with more intention. Schedule a free spiritual growth discovery call with me today. And let's start this journey together with God at the center and everything else in his hands. You can go to bit dot L Y forward slash curious for Christ discovery. B I T dot L Y four. Ford slash curious for Christ discovery. Now, back to our biblical meditation interview with Virginia Leffler. Good morning, Virginia. Thank you for being here with me today. I am so excited to be talking about meditation and mindfulness, but from a biblical standpoint. And you have been a disciple for 50 years. You've been aligning your life, walking with Jesus for five decades. And so such a wealth of knowledge and experience that I'd love to dive into with you. I would love for you to share your story with us right now and what led you to explore meditation and how did you come to study it from a biblical perspective? Okay. Yes. Thank you so much for asking me to share about this. I love to talk about meditation. I've actually began. About 14 years ago, just dabbling into meditation, I was facilitating a class. Bible class, and it was a healing class it was a small group of sisters that we just would get in the scriptures. We're trying to get unstuck in certain ways of life, and they would come in tense, and so I was like, we need to do a little something, a meditation. I had no idea about meditation at that time. So we would just choose a scripture. Read it and just have some silence and contemplate it. That was just the beginning. I had no idea how to really get into meditation. And I just progressed from there. I took a class. An online class on Lectio Divina. Which is a structured meditation. It's I think you can find information about it from the 5th and 6th century. So it's an old practice that monks did, but it was still very it just, it had, it didn't have any structure to it. That was, you would read a scripture, reflect and pray, read a scripture, reflect and pray. And I needed more structure. And I wondered, are these steps in the Bible? So I started a Bible study, and I looked up the word meditate, and anything that was a synonym, contemplate, ponder, muse reflect. And so I looked up every Hebrew word that was used, that was translated in those English words, and then the Greek words, and I was blown away with how much there was in the Bible. And so that was just the beginning of my study. Steps that I studied it, continued to study it and tried to find steps that really helped me go deep in this meditation. So that's how it all started. That's fantastic. So just trying to help people to get into this place where they could find healing. Yes. Wow. Yes. And what stood out to you the most? Were there any insights that surprised or deeply impacted you? Because we all have our own understanding of what meditation or mindfulness would be. When you started studying 14 years ago, were you surprised by any insights you gained? I was. The first thing I was surprised by was that meditation is done with your heart. It's Oh, this is interesting. That's why I had not been really able to benefit from it. I was just too much in my head and not in my heart. And Psalm 77, six says, I will meditate with my heart. So that was the beginning of going deeper in meditation. And of course I was blown away with how much there was in the Bible Old Testament. I knew there were some verses in the Old Testament about meditating, but also the New Testament. So that was those were a couple of things That I found that I had no understanding of. That's huge. Definitely with your heart. That's true that we can stay stuck in our minds and minds are always racing with all the things that are happening around us. And so from your studies, how does biblical meditation differ from other forms of meditations that are often rooted in secular or non Christian practices? Can you tell us more? There is quite, there are quite a few differences. The meditation that's maybe rooted in Eastern form of meditation is more about relaxation. and peace. There's also meditations that people do for health reasons, and they may have nothing to do with the Bible, of course, maybe breathing exercises. Bible meditation is different in that you're really trying to draw close to God. You're not trying to empty your mind. You're trying to renew it. So that was, I think, the thing that I saw that was the biggest difference. You're not emptying, you're not trying to just relax, and Bible meditation has a lot of, you can you can gain peace from it. I love the peace that I've gained from Bible meditation, but it's so much broader than that. It will strengthen you, it will build your faith, so it's got it's got a broader. use than just relaxing or just overcoming anxiety. What I understand is that, would it bring us closer to God, like connect, in connection, our relationship, would our relationship be strengthened after such practices? Yes, I, I think one of the things that I have gained the most from Bible meditation is falling in love with God. I've always looked at those scriptures about loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and spirit. And this was something that I just found myself more and more in love with God, feeling his love, but also being able to feel that love towards him. And that's because of the different steps that I use. I'll share those in a minute, but yeah, that is that's, Meditation, the Eastern style of meditation is not something that would help you fall in love with God. It would, it might help you in physical and mentally, but but it doesn't have that benefit. Yeah. You can definitely see that. And so you mentioned also that the Bible tells us what we should meditate on. So could you tell us what should we meditate on and why is it important to focus on these specific things? Okay how is another thing? I did a search on all the Old Testament scriptures on meditation. What did they meditate on? And they all meditated on some aspect of God. His word, his ways, his laws, his unfailing love, his promises, the wonders that surrounded his works. And then in the New Testament, there's meditations on God there too, but also on Jesus and the cross. So the Bible, the meditations in the Bible, there was very specific things to meditate on that the characters in the Old Testament meditated on. And so you mentioned also some of the spiritual, emotional and mental benefits of practicing meditation, but you say it's different from meditation. benefits that we gain from practicing Bible meditation. So how have you seen it transform lives, including your own in, in a spiritual, emotional, and mental viewpoint? Yes. Meditation leads to mindfulness. So that's one of the, one of the great benefits I did a med, one of the meditations that Jesus taught his disciples was on considering the birds and he gave him some points to meditate, what to think about in it. And when I see a little bird now on my patio, I have a mindfulness that bird, God takes care of him and he takes care of me. So mindfulness is something that comes about as a result of meditation. And, there's a lot of different types of mindfulness. There's mindfulness of what am I feeling right now? Who am I with making the most of moments, but mindfulness from Bible meditation is really about God in your life, moment by moment, not that I think of him moment by moment, but there's certain things during the day that will bring me back to his presence. That's so great. And then a side question, you mentioned that we have to meditate with our heart. How do we allow our hearts to be open or to be in the right posture when we start meditating? there's steps that get you to that. The first three steps are really just to get you into meditation. There's six steps that I practice. So I can share those. Yes, definitely. I'd love to, To hear about these steps, and in a way, of course, that would be helpful for someone who is new to, to Bible meditation and then also I'd love for you to lead us into a guided meditation so we can have a feel of it. So go ahead. That would be great. I'll explain the six steps. Yes. And they're simple steps. Anyone can do this. They're all found in the Bible. There's all scriptures about these six steps. The first one is retreat. Like Jesus, you find your alone place. And a lot of times people think you have to have this beautiful garden or some beautiful place in nature, but I find that distracting. I used to, I would try it at first to meditate outdoors in my backyard. It's beautiful, but I would get so distracted. So I do best in a quiet little room where I can, just stay. focus in a little better. And so the first step is retreat. It's like Jesus find your alone place. The second step is read. And it's important to read it out loud. Find you one scripture or just maybe two scriptures, but you read them out loud because that helps you take more of it in. You're reading and you're listening. And and if there's anything you don't understand, if there's a word in this verse, That you don't understand you need to look it up. If I can't explain it to someone, and there's a lot of words in the Bible we don't use in our everyday language. So it just helps to look it up and then it brings more understanding. So the read step is you're just getting the basic information. So you've retreated, you've read, and now you read it again and you reflect. You just look at it, you're looking for what stands out to you. The Holy Spirit will stir something, maybe just one little word, or it may be a phrase. But that's just the beginning of starting to go into your heart. Excuse me. The next step is request. And the scriptures teach us to put our prayers and requests before God. It says all kinds of prayers and requests. So this request is for wisdom. You're asking for wisdom for two things. You want to seek God's heart in the scripture. And you want to look for an invitation. Is he offering you an invitation? So this step you're going even deeper. You're looking for God's heart, so you have this little prayer, you pray for wisdom for this, and then you read it again, and you're looking for God's heart, and I've had people say to me, what do you mean by God's heart, and I'm like, God has a heart, he's in the story of Noah, his heart was filled with pain. There's scriptures that talk about what he delights in. And so there's, he has emotions. He has a heart and Isaiah 55, 11 talks about his word and the purpose and his desire for sending his word. So you're looking at a scripture, you're trying to figure out what's his desire in this for me. And so that, that is a very important step. That's my favorite step, actually. in meditation, seeing God's heart. And then you read it again and you look for his invitation. maybe something you've never seen before in it. And if I'm meditating with a couple of friends, if we're having a quiet time together and we're doing a meditation, we often have different invitations. We feel something, we're called in different ways by the same scripture. So there's all kinds of possibilities with that too. So you've read, you've reflected, you've looked for God's heart and his invitation. And then the next step is respond. You look at your own heart now. It's what do I feel when I read this? And you name your emotion. And sometimes it's a great emotion and sometimes it's a little challenging. It's unpleasant. You might feel guilty. You might feel like this doesn't work for me. You might feel frustrated. And maybe you have conflicting emotions. You might be grateful for the promise, but feel like, oh, I'm not doing this very well. So you're looking for your response and then you pray and you give your heart to God. You tell him what you feel about it. If you're angry about the scripture, you tell him. If you're grateful, you just give him praise, but it's a time to connect with God. And I think this is really where you've, you've completed the circle between you and God with his word. And then the last step is remember. And you just read it again and you're taking a little word or a little phrase. It doesn't even have to be in the scripture. You're just looking for something to take you back to this meditation to help you remember it. Like I said earlier about the meditation with the birds, when I see a bird, I think My takeaway for that meditation was God sees me. I know he takes care of these birds every day, but God sees me and he promises to take care of me. So it takes me back to that meditation and it's helps me be more mindful. And mindfulness is a gradual thing, that comes from meditation. It helps you understand how near God wants to be to us and us to have our eyes open to that. So those are the six steps. That's great. Thank you so much. So do you do that daily? Or do you set, is it part of your time with God? Part of your quiet time? Sometimes I'll do it daily for months and then I won't. Last year I read through the whole Bible. And I didn't spend as much time this year. Right now I'm meditating my way through Hebrews. And it's been the best study. I've never meditated through Hebrews before. Just a paragraph or a verse at a time. So it takes a while. But it's just a different way to study. Yeah, it's, it just depends on what I'm, how I'm doing. It's one way to connect and I have meditated all the way through the New Testament when I first started, but it's, I, as I go through Hebrews this time it's different, I'm seeing, going a little deeper, I think, so learning how to give my heart to God. An example, I had read a scripture and I don't remember what it was I was meditating on. When I got to the response, I felt a little guilty and I was surprised. I'd never felt guilty from reading this little scripture before. And I had a prayer time and I told God how I was feeling, asked for his help, but I had a little aha moment. I was like, ah. Before I learned to meditate, I still felt a little anxious. I'm a little guilty and I would have put my Bible down and walked away. I wouldn't have had a resolution to it. So in this, I had resolution. So it was, I was like, Oh, thank you God. You're helping me understand how to deal with this kind of anxiety in me. Yeah, so those are the steps. I would be happy to do a little meditation now. Yes, I'd love. Will it be on the piece that Jesus offers? Could you guide us through? Okay, perfect. Go ahead. Let's do that. It's 1 Peter 5, 7, so anyone listening, if they get their Bible out, it's just a very short little verse. 1 Peter 5, 7 it says, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. So we're going to start with step one, retreat, and I think we'll do a breath exercise right now. Let's let's take a deep breath and let it out slowly. That breath is from God. It's a gift from Him. Acts 17 25 says, God himself gives everyone life and breath. Now notice your next few breaths. God is with us moment by moment, whether we notice it or not, giving us breath. And we're about to go before Him right now in this meditation and sit with Him and look deeply into His word. So take another deep breath and let it out slowly. Okay, now we're ready for step two, read. I'll read it for the first time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. It's a very simple verse, so we're going to read it again and we're going to reflect. And this time, what stands out to you? Notice. We'll have a little silence after I read it and just consider what word or phrase stands out to you. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. The word that stands out to me in this is the word all. He says cast all your anxiety. Sometimes it's easy to give God some of our anxiety, and sometimes we want to hold on to our own for a bit. Or maybe you noticed, He cares for you. What a great little statement. He cares for you. Okay, our next step is request. We're going to have a little prayer. We're asking for wisdom, so that we can see God's heart. and hear his invitation. So please pray with me. Father, I pray that you will give us wisdom as we look at this scripture. Please give us wisdom to see your heart in this scripture and to hear your invitation. Amen. Okay, I'll read it again. What does this tell you about God's heart? Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. The first thing I see in it is just how generous God is. He says, cast it all. He doesn't say, I'll take up one or two things from each of you. He's willing to take it all. And it shows He cares about us. He knows we struggle with anxiety and He doesn't want us to. He wants to help us. To me, that just shows so much of His heart. And He says He does it because He cares. He doesn't say I'm big and strong and I can handle this, so just let me have it. It's not that. He says he's, he wants it because he cares for us. So in these little scripture, you can see God's heart in many different ways. I love this scripture. Okay, so let's look for an invitation. I'll read it again. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Do you feel invited in some way through this scripture? I, first time I meditated on this, I felt he was inviting me to cast it all. Cast it all, not just part, but cast it all. And not take it back. Cause I can sometimes give him my troubles and then I find I'm, whoa, I'm back. I'm back struggling with this again. And have to cast it again. Maybe you feel invited to trust, because this does take trust to let go of our anxiety. There's a lot of different things we might feel invited to. Of course, just cast, cast it. Maybe that's what, maybe it's a whole new concept that I can cast my anxieties on God. Okay, so we have read, we've reflected, we've looked for God's heart, we've looked for his invitation, and now we respond. So this time I read it, consider what do I feel, what emotion do I feel when I hear this scripture? Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. So what emotion do you feel? Maybe you feel awe that He would carry everyone so that He can do that. He's such a great God. maybe you feel a little tired thinking that this is going to be a lot of work to cast all your anxiety on Him. Maybe you just feel so grateful, or maybe you feel loved and cared for, like it says here. But whatever emotion you have, this, we're going to take that emotion and have a little silent prayer now and tell God, this is what I felt, God, and it might, you might even have conflicting emotions. You might feel grateful, but you might feel a little guilty because you carry all your emotions around, whatever you feel, tell him and then either praise him, thank him, ask for his help. So let's have just a little short time of silence to say a quick prayer. Amen. Okay, the last step is remember. So what are you going to take with you to remember this little meditation? I'll read it one more time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. You might take cast it all or trust. He cares. That would be a great little mantra through the day. He cares. And being able to give him your struggles. Of course this, I've gone through this very quickly. This is better to spend at least 10 minutes on something like this, but we've gone through it a little quicker, but I would encourage everyone to do it again and do it, in a quiet time and just see how deep they get into this. Thank you so much. I love the all your anxieties. It's true that we can, we're afraid maybe to overwhelm God who already knows everything that we are carrying and not giving to him. And wouldn't that be wonderful to always walk in our daily life knowing that he cares. That's a great little mantra to keep through the day for sure. Thank you so much. This concludes our interview what final message or encouragement would you like to give to leave our listeners with about the practice of Bible meditation and mindfulness? A couple of things. One is Hebrews 4, 12 says the Word of God is living and active or alive and active. And when something's alive, it really impacts everything around it. So when we get in the scriptures, it influences us in ways we don't even know it is. Taking a 10 minute, 15 minute, it doesn't take a long time to have a beautiful meditation. It's not like you have to have an hour. If you have an hour, that'd be great. But 10 minutes, 15 minutes, I just encourage people to just do it. Say, okay, I will take 10 minutes and meditate on this verse, use these steps. And the great thing about the steps is if you get distracted, you just pick up where you left off. And the number one complaint that I've heard about meditation is that people get distracted. And in this, having steps, you just go back to the step you were on and pick up where you left off and keep going. Okay. That's great. So we don't need to feel guilty about where we are in our practice. That's great. Just keep doing it. Where can our listeners find you learn more about your work, listen to your meditations. You have a few guided meditations I do. I do. My website is called biblemeditation. com and I have guided meditations there. I have lists of scriptures that are pretty good for meditation. I have a list for teens that would be helpful for teens, but just beautiful scriptures that can help us. And I have guided meditations. I have maybe 10 there, but I will be putting more up. Soon I have a plan for my year to add some more. I've been working on it for a while, but but yes, biblemeditation. com. Perfect. They are you, they are YouTube meditations, but you'll find them all on my website, which makes it a lot easier. Wonderful. I put the link in the show notes so that it's easy for listeners to find you. Thank you so much, Virginia. And I look forward to learning more through your website through the year. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. It's been great to be with you. Likewise. Hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. And that the short meditation we shared on first Peter five verse seven. Brought some peace and clarity to your heart. What really stood out to me today is the reminder that God cares about all of us. Every part of us, our hearts, our struggles, our thoughts, and through this practice, we can find resolution and healing. It's a beautiful invitation to connect with him on a deeper level and experience peace, not through our minds or external circumstances, but directly from our hearts. As we enter into his presence. Another key takeaway is that the goal of biblical meditation? Isn't simply to find peace though. It does bring peace. It's not about emptying ourselves, but about filling ourselves with God. And when we meditate on scripture, we are inviting him to speak to us, to shape our hearts and minds through his word. I'm curious, what came up for you today in the meditation practice? What emotions did you experience? Please share with me by leaving a review or commenting below. You can also email me directly at hello at Alexandra Alvarez. coaching.com. I love to always hear from you directly. Or you can share in our Facebook group community, be. I T dot L Y. Ford slash curious for Christ community. The link is in the show notes. If you wish to start practicing meditating on scriptures to find resolution or grow closer to God, I've created a free guide just for you. You can grab it at curious for Christ. Dot kit. Dot com forward slash anchor guide. Curious for christ.kit.com forward slash anchor guide. This guide will help you anchor yourself in God's word. And begin your meditation practice right away. I hope this helps and becomes a valuable resource for you as you deepen your relationship with him. And as you move forward. I pray that you continue to put God first in everything you do. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who might benefit from bringing more God into their life paid forward. Thank you for being here and I will talk to you next week. Hi, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you like to take 30 seconds and share it with a friend who may also struggle with knowing God and His purpose for their life. Also, leave a review on applepodcast. com. Podcast, and let me know what topics you'd like to hear about in the future. Your voice matters. I'll meet you back next Friday for another episode.