Prayer vs. Modern Meditation

In my first year of college, I joined a program that helps incoming freshmen navigate resources and provides them with skills that will help them “thrive” within school. When I joined the program I did not think much of it; we started off doing group activities and icebreakers to learn more about each other. It was cool at first… until we had guest speakers coming in teaching us about meditation practices and how to implement them into our daily lives. When they were speaking on the various forms of meditation, one of the women showed a form of meditation, which concluded in her doing the chicken dance, then she would do it faster, breathing in and out each time she flapped her arms like a chicken. In my head, I thought this was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. Thinking about this now, it is sad to see the things that people are turning to when prayer works far more than a simple physical posture.

Society’s Understanding of Meditation

Modern meditation has become so common within society that when we hear or see the word meditate, meditation, or any phrase with the word meditate in it, we already have an idea of what it is.

Woman's hands making a sign of doing meditation.

As I continued in this program, they continued to implement meditation throughout the course for a semester because it was based on self-awareness. The teachers made lesson plans that were aimed toward helping people who faced difficult life experiences that may turn into them having anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues that would get in the way of their personal and academic success. As we see so much awareness for mental health, we see people turn to “spiritual” practices like meditation. With meditation, the purpose behind it is to help people with anxiety, stress, emotions, and other things to help them feel “grounded” in the moment. Although that’s the purpose of doing meditation, one of the things that the guest speakers mentioned to my class will likely stay with me for the rest of my life. She said, “No one will ever perfect the [meditation] practice they were demonstrating – that’s why it’s called practice.”

My question therefore is, if that is the case, then why do it? If I am in the middle of a crisis, and the very thing that I turn to will not help me completely, what is the point of turning to it? Temporary relief? I would rather choose a path that will lead to complete deliverance from what I may be facing, and that is the difference when it comes to prayer.

The Power of Prayer

In prayer, I am turning to God, who can help me with what it is that I am dealing with instead of pushing down the problem for a moment. Like many things that people use to substitute prayer, meditation is something that people turn to when seeking “inner peace.” It brings them to a state where the issue is not as much in front of them as it was, giving the look as if the problem is conquered.

Make the leap in prayer!

When I look at the photo above, I wonder if the person thought that they could make it to the other side just by believing they could. I do not know if there was something behind him leading him to jump and try to get to the other side, and I don’t know if he made it to the other side in this scenario. However, there are people today who are stuck in this cycle. We try to handle things ourselves, or turn to self-empowering, positive speaking practices instead of choosing to let God into our situation. I’ll tell you why prayer is so much more powerful than these alternatives.

Jesus: Our Limitless Companion

First, prayer requires you to face the problem full-on, but instead of facing it full-on by yourself, you have a companion, Jesus, that can do more to help you in the situation than you could yourself. Jesus is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, meaning all-knowing, all-powerful, and everywhere; there is no limit to Him. However, unlike God, we all have our own limits on what we can do. Inviting God, who has no limits, can give me the complete deliverance that I need. Prayer is powerful because sometimes the life situations that created the anxiety, depression, or other mental/emotional turmoil may not change. Instead of being stuck in the weight of the situation, God can turn your depression into joy, your anxiety into peace, and any other negative mental state into something good.

I want to go back to the comment the woman had made about it being called “a practice for a reason.” With prayer, it’s not rocket science and the fundamentals of prayer never change on how to reach God. I remember as I was walking to my class, there were two stands that were giving free books concerning meditation. There are so many various books on different ways to meditate, but with prayer there’s only one source that we need to go to: the Bible. In Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:1-4, Jesus gives an outline on how to pray, not JUST to His disciples, but to us as well. I call this an outline, because Jesus says in Matthew, “After this manner,” the word manner speaks concerning a mode of procedure or way of acting. Another word for this is fashion. Now people quote this scripture in their prayer, but saying this scripture for your whole entire prayer may not be what needs to be said. When you are asking God for help with what may be happening in your family, your job, your health, etc., God is wanting us to tell Him the details so that He can help us.

The Choice: Relief or Deliverance?

The point of this blog is not to make you think which method suits you best, but it is a matter of: will you choose something that works completely or something that hides your problems temporarily?

Need more on how prayer can help? Check out the PRESS Movement Prayer Podcast that travels through nearly every prayer in the Bible, learning a strategy to grow and fight in prayer.