Lord, I Am Coming

March 13, 2017

Lord, I Am Coming

“My heart has heard you say,

“Come and talk with me.”

And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming”

Psalm 27:8

One of the qualities I admire in the Apostle Paul is his single-minded purpose. He told the Athenians, “In (God) 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). His devotion to Christ sustained him through very difficult times.

The psalmist David expresses a similar single-minded devotion to God in Psalm 27. His prose, as in verse 4, expresses his heart’s one desire: “The one thing I ask of the Lord—the thing I seek most—is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”

Some scholars have suggested this psalm may have originally been two psalms because of the shift in tense at verse seven. In the first six verses, the psalmist speaks about God, and in verse seven he begins speaking to God. I think this shift is intentional and expresses an excellent pattern for prayer.  In the first portion of the prayer, the psalmist rehearses his personal convictions, his personal core values. Having thus established a firm foundation for his faith, he then makes his petitions to God. You may want to set aside some time to formulate your own prayer using this pattern.

Begin by affirming your core values, and then be open to the Lord leading you to shape your petitions, “My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming” (Psalm 27:8). (If you have difficulty articulating your core values you can begin with one of the great Affirmations of Faith such as the Apostles’ Creed. Also, you may want to look at a post on my BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ from August 24, 2010, titled, First Think, Then Pray, Part Five.)

Sē’lah

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(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, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.