“Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.” // John 16:24b

I remember walking out of the movie theater as a freshly turned sixteen year old and feeling a sense of wonder and awe that I hadn’t before. I had just watched the movie La La Land for the first time and left with a newfound excitement in my heart. That night, I stayed up in my icicle-lit room with lime green walls until the wee hours of the morning to write my first poem.

That scribbled together poem wasn’t anything magical or awe-inspiring. But I remember the happiness that took root in me through having an opportunity to create something beautiful through words.

Jump forward a few years, I am still writing poetry sporadically. The biggest change between now and then is that I have discovered the radical importance of prayer in my life.

I was recently sitting down to pray and felt the Lord speak in my heart: I talk to the angels about you. Through these words, I found myself being drawn into the Lord’s love and filled with a joy like none other. Those words were more beautiful than any poem I could write.

In that moment, I was brought back to the reality that the Lord is madly in love with me and finds my life beautiful—a fact I easily and often forget. I didn’t sense that He talks to the angels about what I’ve done or what I will do. Simply about me. For every moment that I spent jotting together a few words that I thought sounded nice together, the Lord was desiring to remind me of His profoundly intimate love.

Sister, the Lord is desiring to fill you with good things and give you fullness of joy. He desires it despite the fact that we do not deserve His goodness and love and turn away from Him every day. Even so He is always waiting for you to ask. What will you ask Him for and open yourself up to receive from Him today?