Lord, I Am Coming

August 8, 2014

Lord, I Am Coming

“I’m asking God for one thing, only one thing: To live with him in his house my whole life long. I’ll contemplate his beauty; I’ll study at his feet.”

Psalm 27:4 (MSG)

Abiding continually in the presence of God was the passion of the psalmist David’s life. He expressed it here in Psalm 27:4 and also in Psalm 23:6, “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”

David models in Psalm 27 how we can make real in our lives the truth that the experience of absence does not mean the absence of experience. In the first six verses, the psalmist speaks about God, and in verse seven he begins speaking to God. I think this shift is an excellent pattern for prayer.  In the first portion of the psalm, David rehearses his personal convictions, his personal core values. Having thus established a firm foundation for his faith, he then makes his petitions to God. David was modeling what I discuss in my book, First Think, Then Pray. In this process of affirming the deepest convictions of his life, David makes a beautiful transition to communion with God: “My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming” (Psalm 27:8).

The Apostle Paul also modeled how his single-minded purpose in Christ sustained him through very difficult times. He told the Athenians, “In Christ we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28 NRSV), and he summarized his ministry in Corinth as, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

I encourage you to establish your own personal core faith values. Use your core values in a time of contemplative prayer by first rehearsing and affirming your devotion to Christ until your heart hears God say, “Come and talk with me.” Then your heart will leap with joy as you respond, “Lord, I am coming.”

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.