The Lord loves us!  He wants relationship with us.  He doesn’t want us to be afraid.  I read and hear that over and over again from Him!  Gotta be true of the Father heart of God!

From the journal . . . . June 1998

Lord, I was able to talk to Nancy about You and submission.  She is a young wife and asked me, “Do you think wives should submit to their husbands?”  Lord, You are pretty clear about what we should do.  The how is the challenging part for us, but the command seems clear. 

Eph 5:22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.

We also talked about prayer.  Her former pastor or someone of influence was saying we shouldn’t ask God for things. I was stunned.   Hopefully there was more to it than that or maybe she misunderstood.

Psalm 27:7-8 Hear me as I pray, O Lord.   Be merciful and answer me!
⁸ My heart has heard You say, “Come and talk with Me.”
    And My heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”

Phil 4:6  Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. 

Lord, I just know that I like to talk to You about everything.

And God Said to Me:

I delight to converse with my children.  Relationship involves asking, thanking, wondering, expressing, humbling, answering.

 All your thoughts are precious to Me, not always pleasing but precious when you give Me access.  I know your thoughts, and when you welcome Me to work and examine them, we are closer. 

Psalm 139:1-4
O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
² You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
³ You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
⁴ Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.
 

I can work in your life to a deeper degree when you are totally open to Me.  You say, “Come in and rearrange or edit my character.  Reconstruct me, Oh God.”  That pleases Me.  I am not put off by what I find.

Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
²⁴ And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.

The most sinful heart is more pleasing to Me when opened than a clean heart that is closed, which isn’t possible.

Rom. 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Rom 3:10   As it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one;”
Psalm 53:1-3, Psalm 14:1-3

Oh God!  You are so wonderfully consistent and true.  Your ability to communicate is so awesome.  And that You want to!  It reminds me of Your word from the Psalms.

Ps. 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

I confess, I don’t remember Nancy, but I know she was young in her walk with the Lord. I had been committed to Him for over twenty years at that time and He had taught me many things about relationship with Him. A few things stand out: He wants relationship with His kids and He wants to be involved with every part of our lives. Another thing is His word is alive and He speaks personally to us through it. We may not always understand but if we seek Him and His truth, He will make Himself known to us!