When Was the Last Time God Made Your Heart Skip a Beat?

What if your relationship with God could be so deep, so close, so real that you'd feel it the way you feel it when you first fall in love? Not a religious routine. Not a habit or a guilt trip. But an actual, overwhelming, heart-stirring closeness — the kind where your voice cracks just thinking about it?

That's exactly where we find King David near the end of his life. And honestly? It wrecked me a little.

David's Final Prayer: A Man Overwhelmed by God

In 1 Chronicles 29, we find David at the end of his life. He was an older man, and his son Solomon was about to become the new king of Israel. One of the great desires of David's heart had been to build a temple for God — a place where God's presence could be symbolized and people could come to encounter him in worship, praise, and thanksgiving. But God had said no. God had another plan, an even grander one — a dynasty through David's lineage that would go on and on.

And David was humbled. Completely humbled.

Now, near the end of his days, surrounded by his people who had brought gold, timber, and precious metals to be used in the temple his son would build, David prays one of the most breathtaking prayers in all of Scripture. Beginning in 1 Chronicles 29:10, he says:

"O Lord, the God of our ancestor Israel, may you be praised forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord... But who am I and who are my people that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us. We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us."

When I read those words, I teared up. Part of that is because I could relate to David and the feelings he was going through at this point in his life.

A Relationship Like No Other

David wasn't always the good little boy. He did some things that were very shameful, very wrong, very sinful. He had to walk through that with God. And he experienced God's forgiveness, compassion, mercy, and grace. Those kinds of things are what draw us close to God.

But what strikes me most is the intensity of David's relationship with God. We talk about people having a relationship with God — I've got a relationship with God — but David had something that just went more intense. It was deeper, more special. There was a bond between David and God that, I know we're not supposed to envy others, but this was an envious relationship for me. He just loved God so much. He couldn't see life apart from God.

The closest thing I can compare it to on earth is the bond between a mother and her child. I was a mama's boy, proud of it. I remember driving home from college through a snowstorm on I-65, and when my mom got home and saw that I'd made it safely, she just started crying — tears of relief and joy. That kind of closeness? That's about the nearest thing I can think of to what David had with God.

Lesson 1: Overflow With Praise

David didn't just show up to worship. He overflowed with praise. Someone once said that one great characteristic of worship is pure love and adoration of the Lord, and that we have lost much of this sense of awe and adoration which ought to be at the heart of worship.

Think about the early days of falling in love with someone. Your heart would just go poop, poop, poop, poop, poop. You'd wonder if they'd be somewhere when you arrived. That's the way — and then some — that David felt about God.

God just stirred something inside him. David declared God great, powerful, glorious, victorious, majestic. "You own everything, God. All this stuff we're bringing to you — it's yours to start with. All we're doing is giving to you what you've given us to hold on to for a while."

Lesson 2: Understand the Real Source of Your Stuff

I want to be very clear — this is not a sermon about giving. The primary storyline here is the intimate bond between David and God. But that bond naturally shaped how David viewed everything he owned.

In 1 Chronicles 29:14, David asks, "Who are we that we could give anything to you?" And he answers his own question: "Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us."

God owns the house you're living in. He owns the clothes on your back. He owns the vehicle you're driving. He owns all of that. But the one thing you do have to give to God is the I do — the commitment of yourself to him. That is the one thing. And God stands waiting for you, as someone he has cherished and created, waiting for you to commit yourself to that kind of intimate relationship and fellowship with him.

Lesson 3: Check Your Motives

David had his motives intact because he knew that God was aware of them. In 1 Chronicles 29:17, he prays, "I know, my God, that you examine our hearts and rejoice when you find integrity there."

David's primary reason for giving was that God's name would be honored. And people gave willingly and joyously. I hate when giving happens because of guilt, because someone's twisting your arm. You don't see that in the Bible. You see a spirit of giving that is, to be honest with you, very overflowing.

The key principle in stewardship is simply this: it all belongs to someone else. Good stewardship rests on the fundamental belief that God owns everything that exists.

Lesson 4: Pray for Others

David closes his prayer not by asking for something for himself, but by praying for God's people and for his son Solomon — that their love for God would never change and that Solomon would have the wholehearted desire to obey God's commands.

When all was said and done, it was going to be about God.

Why Are You Really Here?

We live in a day and time when sometimes I really wonder why people go to worship. Habit? Guilt? Missing friends? May I suggest that all of those don't even rank anywhere close to the top reason. The number one reason is to praise our God and to worship our God.

The highest reason for gathering is to spend some time with our lover who goes by the name of God, and just to convey to him — in the best ways that we know how — how we adore him and how special he is.

I think that's what David was doing in this prayer. In his heart, in his mind, in his spirit — he was hugging God the best way he knew how.

Putting It Into Practice

Ask yourself two honest questions:

1. Do you experience God closely enough to have the kinds of feelings David had? If not, make a simple commitment today: God, teach me how to be as close to you as David was.

2. Can your experience with God pass the integrity and honesty test? Are you just going through the motions, putting on a show — or is this the real you? Because just as I can't put on a costume in my relationship with God — he has to be able to see me — neither can you. He has to see you, not somebody else, but you.

My prayer for each of us is that when we get close to our own day of death, we will have grown to the point where David was in his closeness to his God.