{"id":3351,"date":"2016-07-20T18:28:54","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T00:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=3351"},"modified":"2016-07-20T18:31:17","modified_gmt":"2016-07-21T00:31:17","slug":"the-responsive-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=3351","title":{"rendered":"The Responsive Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This morning I had my bimonthly chiropractor appointment. After lunch and some rest, I attended an afternoon Energy Seminar. It was good to connect with several people that I know and to meet some people for the first time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY&#8230;\u00a0<\/strong><em>&#8220;<span id=\"en-NLT-14270\" class=\"text Ps-27-8\">My heart has heard you say, \u201cCome and talk with me.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"indent-1\"><span class=\"text Ps-27-8\">And my heart responds, \u201c<span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span>, I am coming.\u201d<\/span><\/span> <\/em>Psalm 27:8 NLT<\/p>\n<p>How often do we feel that we are &#8220;trying to get God&#8217;s attention?&#8221; We wonder, &#8220;Does He hear me? Do my prayers matter?&#8221; This verse in Psalm 27 turns the table. How often does God desire our focused attention and we ignore Him?<\/p>\n<p>What is interesting is we see in David&#8217;s words, what we experience today; that Lord speaks to our hearts. It isn&#8217;t an audible voice, it is the impression in our &#8220;heart&#8221;- God&#8217;s spirit within that prompts us to connect with Him. To be in His presence, to hear His voice.<\/p>\n<p>We see in the words of this verse a responsive heart. When God speaks, we are not only to listen, but to respond; to say, &#8220;Lord, I am coming.&#8221; We are not be like disobedient or distracted children, we are not to delay, or give the impression we can&#8217;t be bothered, or what we are doing is more important than responding to His voice.<\/p>\n<p>David has just expressed his desire, before the verse above, in these words, <em>&#8220;<span id=\"en-NLT-14266\" class=\"text Ps-27-4\">The one thing I ask of the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span>\u2014<\/span><span class=\"indent-1\"><span class=\"text Ps-27-4\">the thing I seek most\u2014<\/span><\/span><span class=\"text Ps-27-4\">is to live in the house of the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span> all the days of my life,<\/span><span class=\"indent-1\"> <span class=\"text Ps-27-4\">delighting in the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span>\u2019s perfections<\/span><\/span><span class=\"indent-1\"> <span class=\"text Ps-27-4\">and meditating in his Temple.&#8221;<\/span><\/span> <\/em>(Psalm 27:4 NLT)<\/p>\n<p>How do we respond? In quiet, in contemplation, in meditation on God&#8217;s Word, in prayer, in praise. We live in a world that is perpetually busy. It is difficult to slow our pace, let alone the thoughts in our mind. But we see the words of scripture challenging us, <span id=\"en-NIV-14625\" class=\"text Ps-46-10\"><em>\u201cBe still, and know that I am God&#8230;&#8221;<\/em> (Psalm 46:10 NIV) <em>&#8220;<\/em><span id=\"en-ESV-16151\" class=\"text Ps-131-2\"><em>I have calmed and quieted my soul&#8230;&#8221;<\/em> (Psalm 131:2 ESV) <em>&#8220;Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.&#8221;<\/em><span class=\"p\"> (Psalm 62:5 NIV)<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>We can have the assurance that the Lord hears us when we call on Him. The question is, <em>&#8220;Will we take time to be with Him? Will we listen to His voice and respond to His nudging in our hearts?&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Prayer for today&#8230; <\/strong><em>&#8220;Lord thank You that You are available to us. Help us to make ourselves available to You. Give us sensitive and responsive hearts. Hearts that will know You and seek You and live in Your presence.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning I had my bimonthly chiropractor appointment. After lunch and some rest, I attended an afternoon Energy Seminar. It was good to connect with several people that I know and to meet some people for the first time. BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY&#8230;\u00a0&#8220;My heart has heard you say, \u201cCome and talk with me.\u201d\u00a0And my heart [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3351"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3353,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3351\/revisions\/3353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}