Day 44 – Talking to God…

Yesterday, I brought up how I would talk to God at the end of the day. If you don’t mind, I’d like to take time today to expand on that concept. In a very personal way, this is still part of my journey that I operate every day.

These days I don’t wait until the evening, I pretty much talk about things as they come up. To me it’s a natural thing to do, but I do realize that not everyone thinks this way or was brought up to accept this concept.

In my children’s stories, “Stories for Joshua”, the main character Joshua, talks to God every night as he is going to sleep. He is a young child who is learning from his grandfather. I did this so that children would have something to model and think about doing this in their own lives.

However, when I suggested this to a grown man a few years ago, he was frustrated and bewildered. I realized that he had no context of how to openly talk to God because of his religious upbringing.

So, I had to go back in my mind and think about my own origin.

As a child, Mama would always come in to hear my prayers at night and then go and do the same with my sister. But they were very routine… “Now I lay to down to sleep. I pray the lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take”. Now that I think about it that’s downright scary. Anyway, I never thought about what I said as a child, it was just the routine, but at the end of that formal prayer, I would ask God to bless friends and family and whoever else I could think of. Who knows, I might have been stalling so Mama wouldn’t turn the light out, but never-the-less, that was my ritual.

As a teenager, I would talk to God, like I did in the story of dove hunting when God showed me what a dove looked like (Day 14 – God cares about everything…). But I remember a very specific time in college when I prayed one night, a very deep and personal prayer and at the end I said, “I love you, Father”. For some reason, those words felt hollow, and it shocked me. I knew that I did love God in my heart, but I don’t know if I had ever intimately told Him so.

That started me on a quest to find out more about God. My thought was, how can you really love someone unless you know them intimately? I can say to people in general, “Love you”, but when I say that to my wife, it’s a very intimate and deep saying because of our relationship…that’s what I wanted with God.

The only place I knew to go in order to really find God, was the scriptures. So, I read and read and read and talked to God about everything I read. My favorite was to read about King David.

The scriptures say he was a “man after God’s own heart”…this was not said about anyone else, so I figured David was a good role model. In the Psalms you could see David open up his heart to God. He would gripe and complain. Then he would feel lonely and forgotten. Then he would turn it all around and praise God and thank Him for His goodness. I saw the ups and downs all the time, so I learned to talk to God about everything and withholding nothing.

Some people think that it’s improper to talk to God so “irreverently” and they only speak respectful words and don’t complain. Seriously? Do you not think that God already knows your complaints? Do you not think He already knows your disappointment, anger, frustration, and doubt?

You can’t hide anything from God? Why would I want to sound pious, and so “good” in prayer when he already knows I have a problem, or that I’m pissed, or that I’m sad or angry. So why not be totally honest and get it out like David did and some of the other writers of the Psalms. Then at least you start from a clean slate, take a deep breath, and look to God again and start climbing out of the hole you have dug for yourself.

Talk about getting honest with God, let me tell you something that VERY few if anyone will tell you about God and it’s not my opinion, but from the scripture; God’s own testimony.

A lot of religious people say, “You just have to accept God’s will, there is no sense in praying for Him to change His mind”. Really? In 2 Kings 20 it says that King Hezekiah was very sick, and God told Isaiah the prophet to go tell him to “get his house in order because he was going to die” which Isaiah did. Then it says Hezekiah prayed to God and ask for more time. Now, was that disrespectful, irreverent, unloving, arrogant?

Apparently not because look at verses 4-6a of chapter 2 Kings 20…

“And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him saying,

Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, This saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord.

And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria…”

And Hezekiah lived, just as God had promised.

Now we also have to consider the prayer of Jesus in the garden when he asked God his father saying, “…if thou be willing, remove this cup from me…” (Luke 22:42) meaning that he was asking God to change the plan so he wouldn’t have to die on the cross. But after 3 times praying this and no answer from God, Jesus knew that this prayer could not be answered, nothing would change. BUT Jesus had the right to ask and that is mind-boggling. God didn’t get angry or upset, He just didn’t change the plan.

I know this is getting long but let me offer one more example. God told Samuel to go anoint David the son of Jesse to be king of Israel in place of King Saul. Saul was still king at the time but had turned away from God and his time was up.

Samuel was scared to do this because King Saul would get mad and maybe have him killed, and he told God about his fear. So, God said generally, “Okay, take a lamb and pretend you are making an offering and anoint David on the side”. (1 Samuel 16) God didn’t get mad at Samuel; he understood and helped him out.

Now to be complete, I must add one more concept. IF God says something twice, that means it is established and will not change. If He says it once, we have the option to ask but twice and it is finished. God tells us this in Genesis 41:32 “And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.” Just a point to remember.

So do whatever it takes to learn to talk to God as your loving heavenly Father. He cares about you and above all else desires a connection with you. He will work with you and any level as you reach out to Him.

Tomorrow, I will be back on the journey with a new story.