917 The Sweetest Scripture

Today I’m going to share with you the sweetest scripture I’ve ever read. A scripture so powerful in its sweetness that it stopped me in my tracks. When I read it yesterday in a post, I thought for sure it wasn’t really an actual scripture. This couldn’t have been in my Bible all this time and I never saw it. But indeed, here it is. Psalm 27:8 “My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.” Woah. Does that touch you the way it does me? God says to your heart “come and talk with me.” Let your heart simply respond “Lord, I am coming.” On a weekly basis I receive messages asking about prayer. How do you pray more meaningful and powerful prayers? How do you find the proper words to say that bend the ear of the creator of the universe? What exactly do you ask him? Have we turned prayer into a formal communication for which we do not know the language? Have we complicated the connection and in the process disconnected from the Almighty? David, the little shepherd boy who defeated Goliath, then grew to become a great King with the favor of God, is believed to have written this scripture. He knew. He knew the promptings within that bring him to his Maker, and he knew to simply respond. God says “come and talk with me.” That’s not an agenda. That’s not a script. That’s not a formality. That’s an invitation to a conversation. A two way conversation. Talk WITH me, not just TO me. I have things I want to tell you, and there are things I want you to tell me. Today, don’t you hear your Father saying to your heart “come and talk with me.” Yes, you do. Now maybe you’ve allowed the busyness to distract you, and maybe you would first have to tread through layers of guilt and shame before you could bow your head, but today all of that can be removed. Today you can respond “Lord, I am coming.” I’m coming to talk with you. I don’t know exactly what to say. I don’t even know how to start. I don’t even know how to listen for you and be sure you’re talking to me. But I am coming. I didn’t always talk with God the way you hear me talk with him now. I felt distant from him, even unimpressed by him. I honestly felt like he was going to do what he was going to do, and my communication with him wasn’t going to change anything. But I was wrong. My communication with him changed everything. After God saved me from a stroke at 19 years old, I found a relationship with him that created a hunger within me for more. I craved reading God’s word. I wanted to understand. I wanted to spend time with him. I had a green study bible at my work desk and I highlighted nearly every page as I studied. I prayed the promises I read and believed them to be true. I grew immensely. But somewhere in the midst of being completely well and life going on, I lost the sweetness of that relationship, and prayer became an obligatory 3 sentences I would repeat before my meals. Then struggle hit in my early 30’s. Business failed, success ceased, doors closed, and my heart grew bitter. I was angry God had allowed these hardships. I had grown distant and distracted as I tried to fix these problems on my own. But nothing worked as it all fell apart. This was a turning point. This was the day I prayed for the first time in a long time and told God I was angry and disappointed at him. To my surprise, God didn’t turn from me. Instead he responded to my anger with a gentleness and peace I can’t describe. To return to that peace, I began spending more time with God. Instead of just whispering my prayers, I began journaling my prayers. Writing my praises and my requests. Recording the promptings I felt within my spirit. And goodness gracious if our whole world didn’t start changing.