Psalm 86:5 For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.

As I opened up my bible application this morning, this appeared as the verse for the day. When I saw it, a scene from an old western played out in my mind.

A man dressed in his Sunday best with a bouquet of flowers announces to his friend, “I intend to call upon the widow Johnson.” It is obvious that his intention is to declare his love for her.

What if you were to call upon the Lord with those same intentions? What if, rather than crying out from your pain, despair, or need you were to call upon the Lord to declare your love for Him?

I looked to the meaning of this phrase in BLB.ORG to understand the original intent and I discovered something very interesting.

A primitive root [rather identical with H7122] through the idea of accosting a person met.

Personally I would rather be greeted with flowers than with a photo of a perceived injustice and be yelled at “What are you going to do about this?”

My God is a big God and able to see through the pain and know what is at the root of every matter and what needs to be done. Granted God is good, all the time. But what about us?

What does it say about our love for God if we lead off every conversation with complaining? I don’t want to constantly see myself as that little boy running home to mommy crying because I got an ouchy on the playground.

1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

My intentions when calling upon the Lord is one of them.