who do you talk to when you feel hopeless? i’ll tell you what my default is. when i feel hopeless, my default is to not talk to anybody. to throw myself into some work or into some project and just hope the feeling goes away. or to set down in front of the tv and click through 150 channels hoping i’ll find hope on one of those channels. i’ve never found it yet but i just keep hoping. it doesn’t happen that way.
who do you talk to when you feel hopeless? you need to talk to other people. let other people in on it. let them pray for patience in your life. lift each other up. but even that isn’t enough. you talk to other people but also you talk to GOD about it. the feelings build. these feelings of hopelessness, anxiety, discouragement you might have. they build. eventually you’re either going to blow up or you’re going to cave it. so you talk to other people about it. but also you talk to GOD about it. you talk to HIM regularly. you talk to HIM honestly. you talk to HIM about it.
psalm 17.1 (tev) says something about that. i want you to notice particularly a word at the end of this verse. listen o LORD to my plea for justice. pay attention to my cry for help. listen to my honest prayer. do you see it? it says, honest prayer.
do you know why a lot of us don’t like to pray, i think? we don’t pray honest prayers. we pray these pious prayers. we pray these fancy prayers. we pray these religious prayers. we pray these pattern prayers like other people have prayed. so it doesn’t feel like us. it feels phony. it feels fake. because it is. it’s not us. and GOD says, “you know what i’m looking for? I’m looking for honest prayers. tell ME how you feel. tell ME what’s really going through your mind.” HE already knows anyway. HE’s the GOD of the universe. HE knows everything you’re thinking. so if you can’t talk to GOD honestly, who can you talk to honestly? you’d enjoy praying a lot more, you’d get a lot more out of prayer, if you talked to GOD honestly.
just a thought from the front porch…
4 comments:
Prayer...a good time for self-reflection. I think that's what it should be about. I'm not a "pray-er" because I don't believe in god, but I do set aside time to reflect on what is happening in my life and to meditate (although I need to do it more often, and I feel encouraged to practice this more by what you have said). I think in a way, these are the same things as prayer...that is if it is what you call "honest praying"...being real about where we're at, contemplating what is happening in our lives, our struggles, where our priorities are and how we plan to move forward. Those who believe in god will (most likely) believe that he is listening, but regardless of whether he is there or not, I think these times for reflection are important for ourselves and our growth.
Thanks for the post!
thanks, so much, lauren for your comment.
Great Post Bill... Ur Timing Is Awesome, and it was meant for me to see this. I've been having some serious conversations with friends about what we need to do to get the most out of life and talking to GOD is a big part of it. Praying honest prayers is something I never really gave much thought. I'm guilty of praying pattern prayers most of the time and U brought that to my attention. This is something I need to improve so I can improve my relationship with GOD. Thank U So Much Bill, GOD Bless!
In Bible Study we talked about Isiah 49-55. We talked about Hope. The pastor said "The depth of our grief is matched by the breadth of God's hope." He also said that loss leads to grief, and grief leads to hope. It was inspiring.
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