You're listening to Encounter, a simple daily podcast of sacred and mindful meditations

to help you encounter the divine presence of God all throughout your day.

If you want to have free access to the entire library of 500 meditations, I encourage

you to download the Encountering Peace app where all the meditations are free as they should be.

Have you ever been to a surprise party that didn't quite go as planned?

Maybe you were the host or maybe you were the guest of honor?

Perhaps on Christmas or your birthday, have you ever given or received a gift that disappointed you?

Either the gift or maybe the response to it, we're not exactly what you had hoped for.

Well, this meditation from Matthew 7 will help you better understand the gifts that God offers to you.

Good, advantageous gifts you may not even know you need or want, yet.

So to begin your meditation, let's settle into a place of receiving for a moment.

Just relax your body and your mind and your eyes.

We will be together for about 15 minutes, but let me mine the time.

That is my gift to you today.

Listen now from the Valley of Vision.

Help me, Lord, to see how good Thy will is in all you do.

And even when it crosses mine, teach me to be pleased with it.

So pause here and still your heart to be pleased and all God offers you now in quiet reflection.

Let this continuing time of silence move without effort into a time of reflective prayer.

A prayer less of what more you want, but rather being pleased with what you have.

So spend a moment now to encounter God silently in your way,

speaking quiet words of praise and thanksgiving from your heart.

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