Think of some hard times you have gone through lately. Whether it was a health issue, some drama with one of your friends, or an onslaught of troubling thoughts that made you just want God to wrap His arms around you. Whatever the struggle, think back to what your reaction was when you were first hit with that tragedy. Did you automatically run to God, verbally pouring out your thoughts and needs as if you were talking to your best friend?
Yeah, I didn't always do that either. I would send up silent prayers as I went throughout my days... yet somehow those prayers weren't nearly as refreshing as sharing my heart with my sisters in Christ. See anything wrong with that picture? I did... and it left me thinking; "Why don't I ever share my heart with God?"
I always figured that God already knows my heart better than I do, so there's no need to tell Him what He already knows. But I'm learning that a sort of healing begins when we get it out, when we verbally confess our struggles and ask questions and seek answers. No one gives better answers and healing than God, right? I really like the way Charles H. Spurgeon says it:
We may complain to God, but not of God. When we complain, it should not be before men, but before God alone... We do not show our trouble before the Lord that He may see it, but that we may see Him. It is for our relief, and not for His information that we make plain statements concerning our woes... Pour out your thoughts, and you will see what they are: show your trouble, and the extent of it will be known to you: let all be done before the Lord, for in comparison with His great majesty of love the trouble will seem to be as nothing.
I was reading in the Psalms one day and I came across this verse:
I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken (Ps. 16:8).
What does it mean to have the Lord at your right hand? Well, the way I see it, whenever I need a hand I automatically use my right one. (Bear with me lefties!) If God is at our right hand, He is the one that we automatically go to for help. It's almost a sort of developed instinct to seek God first if you set Him always before you.
And don't forget the last part of the verse!
I will not be shaken.
Isn't it comforting to know that if you truly seek God for the strength to stand against temptation, He will give it?
So I encourage you to try it. Think of something that's bothering you, and talk to God about it-out loud. Ask Him questions, and trust that He will answer in His own perfect timing and way. Do this, and I believe that you will discover what Mr. Charles and I have discovered:
Anything which leads us to cry unto God is a blessing to us. –Charles H. Spurgeon
This post was written by Deanna Martin.
