What Is Christ-Centered Meditation and Prayer?

Christ-centered meditation and prayer is a devotional spiritual practice of surrendering to the heart of God — the unconditional love located in our hearts. Christ is in everyone from the beginning of time as a divine spark of light, life, and love. 

The goal of our daily practice is to turn toward Him and trust in Him. When we demonstrate our faith and return to our heart, His love is poured out into our body and soul. Christ-centered meditation and prayer is healing, purifying, and transforming to us. This is how it happens. 

Christ-centered meditation and prayer leads us to Christ, who lives in our heart.

In Christ-centered meditation and prayer, we come to realize that Christ is inside of us. Many verses in the Bible tell us that Christ is living in our hearts. One of my favorites is “…then Christ will make his home in your heart as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.” (Eph. 3:17)

If and when we can be open and willing to explore Christ at the center of our heart, we’ll be able to access the deepest part of ourselves known as “the secret place of the Lord.” It’s here that we can experience God’s presence, and it’s a peace and power beyond understanding. God’s Spirit within is stable, wise, powerful, and eternal. It’s in us, for us. 

Christ-centered meditation and prayer brings our focus to Christ in our heart.When we’re able to be still and consciously connect to our body and soul and then surrender to God’s Spirit in our heart, we create new pathways in our brain leading directly to God. In so doing, we learn to relax, remain in peace and even have the power to become peacemakers. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, because they will be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:9). 

In the Gospels, Jesus invites us to take this journey and models how to do it. Throughout His teaching, Jesus, in so many words, says, Let go and let God. Christ-centered meditation and prayer enables us to be in an honest relationship with God.

During His life on Earth, Jesus seized the opportunity to be alone with the Father, praying in secret. “…[R]ising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” (Mk. 1:35)

When we faithfully meet with God, we learn to be comfortable with a deeper level of vulnerability where we can acknowledge our reality. We then become open to experience our personal truth, not hiding or burying it. We become more of ourselves instead of rejecting certain parts of us that we may have been avoiding or judging. 

When there’s light on our truth, which is our reality, past or current issues can be healed, transformed, and released. We find that within our body, no matter what’s happening, we’re safe with God.

During meditation and stillness, we strive to become comfortable in the sanctuary of our own body where we begin an adventurous journey that leads us to our heart, the place where our soul, spirit, and The Spirit of Christ is located. It’s here where we find a powerful source of light, love, and healing.

In stillness, we can have a profound direct experience of our existence as human beings and our intimate connection with God. We realize our oneness with “I am who I am.” (Ex. 3:14) In this moment, we realize how multidimensional we are; our spirit, soul, and body are connected to God’s Spirit.  

Christ-centered meditation and prayer allows us to know God.

Inside our body, in  moments of union, we can begin to experience and know God. I am, and He is “I AM.” You are.We are. They are. Together we’re all connected to God’s Spirit who’s joined to ours in our hearts. This knowingness increases our sense of community and compassion with other humans. 

We learn to carry out the greatest commandment: “Jesus declared, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt. 22:37-39)

When we meditate and pray like Jesus, we learn how to host God through a continual awareness of His presence inside of our temple, the human body. Jesus teaches us that God is with us and will never leave us. 

Our very existence becomes meaningful when we realize that we’re hosting Christ within our body, our soul, and our spirit. He’s called Immanuel, which means, “God with us.” God is with us. God chooses to be in a relationship with us, and He communicates with us. When we sit in stillness, meditate and pray, we listen and communicate back.

Christ-centered meditation and prayer gives us the opportunity to gain wisdom from God.

In meditation, we not only come to realize that God’s inside of us, and that His Spirit flows into our heart as love, but His voice and wisdom becomes available to us as well. God is Love, Wisdom, and Truth. 

We’re granted access to these superpowers and all of His virtues. The more we stay consciously connected, the more good things are added to us such as peace, kindness, joy, patience, goodness, self-control, faith, hope, and the greatest of these, love, pure unconditional love. 

When we use this love on ourselves, God’s Love grows inside of us. The more we generate the energy of love, the more it grows within us, purifying and healing our hearts as it expands. During meditation and prayer, we dwell and abide in God’s Love. It becomes perfected in us and begins to flow out of us. 

We begin to grow in our ability to love. We have more love inside. As our love for God grows, naturally our love for ourselves grows. As it does, we have more love, kindness, and gentleness to give to others. 

The Apostle Paul put it this way: “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” (1 Jn. 4:16) In Christ-centered meditation and prayer, we come to rely on God, to actually develop new neural pathways to our heart, literally creating new roads to a place where there’s a higher power. 

Christ-centered meditation and prayer connects our spirit to God’s Spirit.

Through Christ-centered meditation and prayer, we experience our human spirit connected to His Spirit at the very center of our being. From this place, we can sense God’s presence and get to know our true nature. We are human and divine.

Christ-centered meditation and prayer establishes a right relationship between our soul and God’s Spirit. We learn to surrender. Having a surrendered soul allows God’s Spirit to direct us. His Will and Conscience speak to us and guide us toward our divine path, reducing our suffering and giving us the power to remain calm and directed in all situations. 

As we learn to become still and experience God’s Presence, our body can be trained to remain relaxed and our soul can learn to surrender or take a back seat to the strength and wisdom of God’s Spirit. In this way, we become a surrendered vessel for the Spirit to do His work through us. We receive grace and help and our lives begin to have a flow and sense of ease. 

As strange as this sounds, giving up control leads us to a much more interesting, fulfilling, and satisfying life experience. We begin to live our authentic lives and personal journey. Our soul, or ego, can often lead us down rabbit holes or in circles, while God’s Spirit leads us toward our deep desires and the sharing of our unique gifts. 

In becoming still and getting to know God, Christ is experienced at the center of our heart. We begin to understand our inner world is full of accessible supernatural virtues waiting to be expressed and used for our benefit. 

We can learn to quiet our mind, calm our emotions, and provide rest for our souls. This is a practice of deepening and refining our spirituality as we learn to connect our spirit with The Spirit of God. 

Christ-centered meditation and prayer helps us form a loving relationship with God.

God wants a relationship with us most of all. He wants to draw near to us in whatever place we find ourselves in. It doesn’t matter if you feel you’re not deserving, or you’re not ready, or maybe you feel full of anxiety, depression, darkness, guilt, regret, negativity, shame, or impulsive desires. No matter what, God wants a relationship with you. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (Jm. 4:8)

Through this process of surrendering, we’re transformed and transfigured into better humans which make us become even more committed to Christ. I’ve learned through Christ-centered meditation that the saying, “Christ Saves or Jesus Saves,” is absolutely true. Being connected to Christ saves us from a mundane and inauthentic life or a life of constant suffering and pain. 

Final thoughts…

God wants us to be able to learn to meditate like Jesus and live a life that brings peace and wholeness. As we become more aware of our heart, body, soul, and human spirit, we become awakened to God’s Spirit and His Presence inside of us. This awareness enables us to experience more joy in our lives where fear can no longer invade or exist. Robert Morris, Pastor of Gateway Church Texas says, “You are the place where God dwells. He lives in you.” 

During a practice of Christ-centered meditation and prayer, we knock at the door of our own heart and discover all the treasures that we can receive. Jesus said, “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matt. 7:7-8)  

In Christ-centered meditation and prayer, we open the door to our heart, where unconditional love is the healing light that creates new life. 

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