Being Honest With God
Sometimes prayer can seem like a high wire act on a tightrope- trying to balance what I say to God with my confession of faith. I am a strong advocate of speaking the Word of God and not speaking out of fear or unbelief. Yet, my belief in the power of the spoken word has sometimes affected my ability to speak my heart to my heavenly Father. Sometimes I get concerned that if I tell Him how I feel I might be speaking contrary to what I am believing Him for. God never intended prayer to be something where we guard our words and hearts from Him. That is the devil trying to keep us from going to the One who can help us.
King David amazes me. The man poured his heart out to God in gut-wrenching honesty. And God called Him a man after His own heart (Acts 13:22). Why did God call him that? Let’s look at a few versions and translations of Act 13:22 and see if it sheds any light on it. And if we understand that, maybe it will help us in balancing faith and feelings in prayer.
He raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave their testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. Acts 13:22 (KJV)
He made David king over them. This is what God said about him, "David, Jesse's son, is the kind of man I love. He will do all that I want him to do." Acts 13:22 (The Voice, VOICE)
God raised up David to be king, for God said of him, ‘I have found in David, son of Jesse, a man who always pursues my heart and will accomplish all that I have destined him to do.’ Acts 13:22 (The Passion Translation, TPT)
He raised up David to be their king, of whom He testified, saying, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will fulfill My entire will.’ Acts 13:22 (Modern English Version, MEV)
He raised up David to be their king; of him He bore witness and said, I have found David son of Jesse a man after My own heart, who will do all My will and carry out My program fully. Acts 13:22 (Amplified Bible Classic Edition, AMPC)
What do we see by looking at these? God called David a man after His own heart because David desired to have the heart of God. In other words, he wanted what God wanted. He longed to please God and loved God’s Word and commands. He wanted his own desires to match up with God’s. And God knew that David was a man who would obey Him and do His will. When David spoke to God, he spoke out of a sincere motive of wanting to know God and do His will. He trusted God and knew God wanted to be good to him, and out of that trust, he spoke his heart. In other words, he spilled his guts to the One who could take care of the problem. In telling God how he felt, he was indeed acting in faith. If he was acting in doubt, he would have fretted and worried, keeping his issues to himself and not taking them to God.
It is one thing to keep words of doubt and unbelief out of our vocabulary. Speaking and confessing what God said and not magnifying the problem by talking about it is very important. VERY important. We cannot be victorious when we are constantly telling people how defeated we feel. Yet, when we are talking to God, we can share our emotions with Him while being in faith that He can handle our problems. We can express our hearts to Him and not be in despair that He will not help. And as we tell Him what we are dealing with, we can use His Word to remind Him (and ourselves) what He has promised. And we can express our emotions by praying in the Spirit. As a matter of fact, that might be the best way to share our feelings with Him because tongues is the perfect epxression of prayer. And it is the perfect emotional outlet.
If we desire to do His will, He will give us the desires of our heart. He is loving and faithful to give us the help we need. We don’t need to worry about our performance in prayer, instead focusing more on our relationship with our heavenly Father. We can pour out our hearts to Him and stay in faith- and we can forget about the tight rope balancing act. And there’s no net required, because God IS our safety net.
