Are you okay with...? Pt. 2

So how about this one...

Are you okay with a god who can handle your honesty?  What about one who even invites it?

There's a horrible psalm that I don't like reading at all.  But I read it every so often to remind me that God can handle my honesty and does actually invite it.  The closing line in the psalm says, "Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rocks."

That's horrible.

Can you imagine praying that in your small group or Sunday School class?  What if your pastor prayed it during Sunday morning worship?

Without getting into too much detail on the psalm itself, let's just say that they were in a bad place when it got composed.  The crazier part, to me, is that it's in the canon.  God actually inspired that text.  And I can't think of another reason than that He is inviting our honesty.  He not only can handle it, He put a psalm in the Bible to invite it.

Think about it, though.  He already knows what's going on in our hearts and thoughts anyway.  We might as well talk to Him about it and deal honestly with Him.  Most people forget that God already knows it all and so their prayers about themselves are religious but not honest, filled with platitudes but not authenticity.

And that's why they miss intimacy with Him.

Our honesty is the predecessor to our intimacy with God.  If we're not willing to be honest with Him, we will never be intimate with Him.  But it's also true that the more intimate we are, the more honest we'll be with Him too.  Don't believe me?  Look at some of the prayers of the saints who have gone before.  The closer they got to God, the bolder they became in their requests.

The pastor in me has to say here that honesty is a two-way street.  When we're honest with God, we have to be ready for Him to be honest back.  And sometimes that really hurts.  So be ready for that, but it's so worth it.

But that's just me thinking thoughts...