Sunday, August 12, 2007

Giving God my Heart

I felt the Holy Spirit telling me to post part of a prayer I prayed a few months ago. It's quite personal and a little difficult for me to do. I trust that this will be helpful to someone reading it and be for the praise and glory of God.
My Lord, my God, You have shown me a glimpse of Your heart and I am amazed. What love, what affection, what burning, unbridled desire to hold me tight to Your chest. You have loved me since before You placed the stars in their orbits. I know that You are beyond time, but it seems that You have waited over the millennia for my appointed time to be born. I can see the smile that was on Your face on Oct. 29, 1965. Since that day (and before as well) You have pursued me, longed for and fought for my affections. Yes, I gave You lip service, acknowledging You as Lord, confessing my sin, and accepting Your salvation. They called it "giving You my heart" but I hadn't given You my heart. I hadn't realized in You the Source of all love and the One to Whom I could open my heart and give all my love to, imperfect as it is. Yet, You chased me. I was cold to You, yet Your love for me boiled within You. I was self-absorbed, yet You wanted to drench me with the flood of Your love; to overwhelm me in the tsunami of Your passion. Over and over again You poured out Your love on me. Over and over You showed me Your goodness, Your faithfulness, Your power, and Your unrelenting, persistent, tenacious, enduring, perfect love. I may have acknowledged You verbally, but not from the depths of my heart. I need Your patient and persistent love. For decades you poured oil on my cold, hard heart, messaging it, infusing Your love and life into it. I love You Lord God, my Father, my Dad. I pour my heart out to You. It is Yours, only Yours, all Yours. You are my Lover and I am Yours. I know that there are millions of Your children, but when I am alone with You I am Your son, the one You like, Your favorite. The relationship between us two is the center of all things. I praise You for Your graciousness, Your mercy, Your love never ending.