March 22

“Many souls who have access to God do not have communion.   They come full of themselves and their own needs, and all they have to say is about their feelings, their sins, or their trials.  It is all self, self, self.  But communion means to dwell upon and delight in that which God dwells upon and delights in.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, Daily Secrets, 3/22

This is a distinction I’ve never stopped to ponder--the difference between communication and communion.  To communicate means to make known, but to have communion is to mutually share.  Looking back at my Christian walk I’d have to say I merely "communicated" to God for years.  I told Him how I felt or what I wanted. It wasn’t until we had a financial crisis that I discovered prayer wasn’t just talking to God for the purpose of venting.  I can still remember where I was sitting when I felt God’s presence as I prayed and then have Him begin answering my prayers in ways I hadn’t “figured out” for Him.  This was when I realized prayer was a two-way communication.  In the ensuing years I have used my journal writing as a means to ask for and receive His guidance.  By the time I’d formulated my concern into a coherent sentence an answer usually flowed through the pen to the page.  But now I realize I did not experience this state of communion that Hannah speaks of. I was asking God to enter into my will. Now I know I must seek to enter into His will for me.  This is true communion.

“Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.”  Psalm 37:4, 5