Be Completely Honest with God When You Pray

 

By A. W. Tozer

 

 

But, 0 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 Mintyre once wrote: "Honest deal-

ing becomes us when we kneel in His pure presence."

 

Then Mintyre continued: "On one occasion Jeremiah

failed to interpret God aright. He cried as if in anger, '0

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 penetra-

tion 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! 

---

Yours in Christ,

Paul N. F