Open and Honest with God

Habakkuk 1:2–4 (NIV)

How long, Lord, must I call for help,

but you do not listen?

Or cry out to you, “Violence!”

but you do not save?

Why do you make me look at injustice?

Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?

Destruction and violence are before me;

there is strife, and conflict abounds.

Therefore the law is paralyzed,

and justice never prevails.

The wicked hem in the righteous,

so that justice is perverted.

1 Samuel 1:10–16 (NIV)

10. In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. 11. And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”

12. As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”

15. “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine ; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”

The New International Version (Chapter 9)

32 But they [the disciples] did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But they [the disciples] kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

The New International Version (Psalm 13)

1 How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?How long will you hide your face from me?2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? 3 Look on me and answer, LORD my God.Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

Open and Honest with God

Laying out all my cards on the table, this is not my strongest suit.

1. As children, we tend to brutally honest. I remember I was teaching children’s choir on my 24th birthday and they sang to me. I asked how old they thought I was and one of them said, maybe a hundred? That was probably one of the highest numbers this young child knew. It still makes me laugh to think about it. And to remember, never ask a question you are not prepared to hear the answer, especially to children.

My mom did her darnedness to take away my bluntness, to think about what I was going to say and try to temper it some instead of just saying what i was thinking. She succeeded. In life, it was a good thing. We all need compassion sometimes. With God, not so much. Sometimes, instead of being child-like blunt, I temper what I pray so as not to offend. But the thing is, God isn’t offended when we are honest with Him.

Consider Habakkuk the prophet. In Hab 1:1, he says “How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? “

Or David in Psalms 13: 1-2? 1.How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?

The New International Version. (2011). (Ps 13:1–2). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

2. Sometimes, I don’t even know what the problem is, so how could I even pray or talk it over with God?

Even when we don’t know what the problem is, God does.