“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” – Psalm 139:23, 24

My dear hearer, have you ever spoken to God in all your life? Have you ever realized that there is such a King in the room with you? There is such a King; it is He who made you, and who has preserved you up to this good hour. You are, surely, not prepared to deny His existence; and if you are not, I beseech you, do not ignore that existence, and live as if there were no God. Oh, speak with Him at once! Perhaps five minutes’ earnest speech with Him may be the turning-point of your life. “I will arise and go to my Father,” was the turning-point with the prodigal; and it may be the same with you. “Oh, but I feel so guilty!” Then get alone, and say that to the Lord. “But I do not feel as I ought.” Then get alone, and tell that to God. “Oh! but I am such an unbelieving being.” Get alone, and tell out all the truth to the Lord; do not entertain a thought or a feeling which you dare not tell to Him. Do not imagine that you can hide anything from Him, for He reads your inmost heart. Then take that heart, and lay it bare before Him, and say with the psalmist, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” As one of God’s creatures, I could not bear to think that I had seen the glory of the midnight stars, or warmed myself in the brightness of the noonday sun, and yet had never spoken to Him who made them all and myself as well. One of our sweetest joys on earth is to speak with Him in prayer and praise, to call Him Friend, and to be on terms of sweet familiarity with the Most High. I do pray you, then, get alone for these three purposes, first, to consider your case, next, to study the Scriptures concerning your case, and then, that you may speak with God in prayer.~ C.H. Spurgeon