A lifetime ago, I was at a morning men’s prayer. I knelt beside a man whose prayers were magnificent. I remember thinking: “Lord, I wish I could pray like Del.”

I heard this whisper some place inside me: “Jim, I don’t listen to his words, I look inside his heart.” 40+ years later, I remember that whisper. That place. That moment. That voice. I still don’t have the elegant prayers of Del, but God likes what He sees when He looks inside my heart. That’s where the changes have happened.

But the changes have not stayed only in my heart, they have become part of my daily walk. The changes have improved my words. My prayers have grown more honest. My heart is full.

When Del passed to meet face to face with the one to whom he prayed, I asked: “What was there in his life that I want to keep alive in mine?”

“Lord, let me keep my heart as close to you as his was!”

God continues to answer that prayer in ways I didn’t know was possible.

He keeps changing me in ways I didn’t know I needed to be changed. From the inside out. 

Amen