Completely Honest with God When You Pray

Be Completely Honest with God When You Pray by AW Tozer

“But, O Lord of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause”. Jeremiah 20:12

There is a vital element of true prayer which is likely to be overlooked in our artificial age.

That vital element is just plain honesty!

The saintly David M’Intyre once wrote: “Honest dealing becomes us when we kneel in His pure presence.”

Then M’Intyre continued: “On one occasion Jeremiah failed to interpret God aright. He cried as if in anger, ‘O Lord, thou hast deceived 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.”

I recall another spiritual writer of unusual penetration has advised frankness in prayer even to a degree that might appear to be downright rudeness. When you come to prayer, he says, and find that you have no taste for it, tell God so without mincing words. If God and spiritual things bore you, admit it frankly.

This advice will shock some squeamish saints, but it is altogether sound nevertheless. God loves the guileless soul even when in his ignorance he is actually guilty of rashness in prayer. The Lord can soon cure his ignorance, but for insincerity no cure is known.

We can learn something at this point if we will!