Let your heart be strangely warmed. The way to “taste and see that the Lord is good,” (Psalm 34:8) is to open your heart and begin to ponder His presence and reality. The entire Book of Psalms is about pondering God. Ponder and absorb His beauty.

When people are trained to regularly ponder, drink in, and absorb the presence of the living Jesus, the life transforming power of the Holy Spirit begins to flow from within them like rivers of living water. (John 7:37-39.) Pondering prayer focuses on the presence of God and pays close attention to His inner promptings.

Marvel at the marvel of God. Regularly focus on, consider, contemplate, and ponder how His creation produces awe, amazement, and astonishment. Then you will eventually develop an ongoing awareness of the breathtaking beauty of being alive. True Christian worship wows people with the presence of the risen Jesus Christ. The early Christ-followers were “filled with awe.” (Acts 2:43)

Theology approaches the Bible with mental analysis and treats it as mainly religious information. Inspiration ponders the Bible with the heart and soaks it in as the lifegiving word of God. (2 Timothy 3:16) Perpetually ponder “the mystery of godliness.” (1 Timothy 3:16)

“The kingdom of God is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2) If Christ-followers would meet to ponder the presence of the risen Jesus and then to obey His inner promptings the kingdom of God would show up in their midst. Without faith, people will neglect to ponder the presence of Jesus and will choose to ignore His inner promptings.

Don’t just take notes on a sermon. Take notes on and ponder your own thinking. Look closely and you might just find the voice of God speaking within you.

The Spirit-led ponderings of ordinary Christ-followers are powerful. Unfortunately, they have been trained to ignore their ponderings and revelations and instead to put their faith in the words of a preacher.

Christian, ponder! Refuse to settle into lukewarmness. Everyday hit the pause button and ponder the beauty of life for a while. Ponder how you can live better and get better results from your life. When I ponder the mystery of my consciousness of the world around me, I am captured by awe of my Creator.

Ponder to cultivate Christ’s inner peace:
1) Notice the thoughts that come to your mind,
2) Reject the harmful ones,
3) Ignore the mediocre ones,
4) Embrace the helpful ones, and
5) Treasure the inspiring ones.

When you’re thinking in a box you’ve clipped the wings that empower you ponder the things that cause your heart to soar. “Wait on the Lord” and “mount up with wings as eagles.” (Isaiah 40:31)

Pondering goes beyond what and examines why. To neglect to ponder is to abandon your God-given responsibility to make wise choices.

Don’t panic, ponder.
Trust in Jesus.
Let Him prompt you.
Train yourself to
Be a responder
To His Spirit.
Be faithful
To live under
His direct Headship.

Perhaps our purpose
As people
Is to ponder
And absorb
Life’s wonder.

Neglecting to ponder
The significance
And purpose
Off your existence
Makes it easy to squander
Your life.

Ponder the effect
Of your thoughts.
Notice what they
Do to you.
Then select
And collect
The ones that have
The best effect
On you
And reject
Deflect
And eject
The harmful ones.

Creativity
Identifies Ideas
And keeps insight
In sight.

The more you ponder,
The less you’ll wander
Aimlessly.

My ponder place
Is anyplace
And everyplace.