“Honesty about sin and brokenness is not justifying them or somehow accepting them as good. The opposite is true. Ignoring these things or condemning our sin and moving on is a failure to take them seriously. . . . Honesty in prayer is a rejection of dishonesty, or a lack of transparency, in prayer.”- Kyle Strobel and John Coe
“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”- Psalm 139:23-24
Kyle Strobel and John Coe conclude Chapter 4 of Where Prayer Becomes Real as they stress that it’s not enough to name the truth of things like our anger. We must do more than name such truths and move on. Instead, we name our truth in the presence of Christ. In His grace, Jesus receives us just as we are. And in His grace, He refuses to leave us in that condition. Furthermore, prayer serves as the first place to wrestle through these things.
As a result, the authors explain what happens when we follow this path of prayer:
“As we follow this path of prayer, the Spirit uses the truth to teach us that we have nothing to fear. Until we pray what God sees in us, we will not really know who God is and what he can hear and handle because our anxiety and fear will inhibit our knowledge of God and ourselves. This leads to a double delusion. . . . The result is naïve thinking that if we avoid telling God about the deep issues in our hearts, they will just go away or can be dealt with over time. . . . When we abide by this double delusion, we introduce a ceiling on our trust with God.”
Also, when we avoid telling God about our heart’s deep issues, we fall for the deception that these things no longer reside in our hearts. Hence, we worship, pray, and seek Jesus in fantasy rather than living by faith in reality.
Today’s question: How do you approach honesty about sin and brokenness? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “House of mirrors – our prayer experience”
