Honesty in Prayer
Prayer AW Tozer • Sermon • Submitted
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In the age we live in, being honest with others is something which is hard to do.
We would rather white-wash the truth as to be totally honest with people.
David M’Intyre speaks of this element of prayer in his book “The Hidden Life of Prayer
“Honest dealing becomes us when we kneel in His pure presence.
In our address to God, we like to speak of Him aswe think we ought to spead, and there are times when our words far outrun our feelings. But it is best that we should be perfectly frank before Him. He will allow us to say antyhign we will, so long as it is to Himself.’I will say unto God my rock,’ exclaims the psalmist, ‘why hast thou forgotten me?’ If he had said, ‘Lord, thou cants not forget. Thoe has tgraven my name on the palms of thy hands,’ he would have spoken more worthily, but less truly.
On one occasion Jeremiah failed to interpret God aright. He cried as if in anger, ‘O Lord, you decieved me, and I was deceived.’ These are terrible words to utter before Him who is changeless truth. But the prophet spoke as he felt, and the Lord not only pardoned him, but met him and blessed him there.”
Another spiritual writer recommends we be very honest with God.
Even if we find prayer to be something that is boring and monotonous, let God know about it.
God can work with someone who lashes out in blindness or ignorance, but he can’t cure insincerity.
Current thoughts are we need to lie to get ahead.
We desire to make a good impression above all.
We will put on a facade in order to make someone like us.
The only time it seems we show our true nature is when we are angry.
Since we are used to acting this way towards each other, it is easy for us to do this with God as well.
This act is extremely hateful towards God.
The power of our prayers will increase when we reach a point we can be totally honest with God in all things.
A Christian known for his great prayer life was asked how it came to be.
The man told the individual when he asked that he made a vow to be totally honest with God about everything.
When he did this, his prayer life turned around.
There is a huge lesson in this man’s vow.
We must be careful as we go through our Christian lives on earth we don’t find ourselves misrepresenting the truth.
Not only to others, but ourselves as well.
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
This verse tells us there was no deceit in Christ’s mouth. This shows us these two cannot coexist.
Jesus also commended Nathanael
Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”
Maybe we should ask ourselves how Jesus would see us in light of this verse.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,
According to this scripture, if we don’t fill ourselves with God, we will filled with all sorts of evil.
For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.
This is who we are as believers in Christ.
We shouldn’t adopt these deceitful ways which will affect our prayer lives.
When we are totally honest with God in our prayer life, it will be transformed.
We don’t need to put on fronts with God. He knows exactly who we are and all we have done. He knows our very thoughts. Why do we think we need to put on a front and try to get by with a bad attitude.
The following is from a French priest during the 17th Century:
“Tell God all that is in your heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles that He may comfort you; tell Him your longings that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes that He may help you conquer them; tell Him you temptations that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your soul that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved taste for evil, your instability. Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride hides you from yourself and from others. If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, and troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. you will never exhaust the subject, for it is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want fro subjects of conversation. They do not weigh their words for there is nothing to be held back. Neither do they seek for something to say. they talk out of the abundance of their heart. Without consideration, they simply say just what they think..... Blessed are those who attain such familiar unreserved communication with God.”
We will experience blessings from the Holy Spirit when we are honest with God in our prayers.
When we are totally honest with God, our prayer lives will be strengthened.
Let’s strive for honest in our prayers in the days ahead so we can know Him better.
