Tuesday, February 2

Begin your time with God today by taking about five deep breaths. Each time you breathe out – imagine you are exhaling all the stress, tension and concerns that burden your heart – and just trusting them over the God as you prepare to meet with him.


All relationships begin with and depend on some degree of honesty. The writer of this Psalm understood that – and understood that genuine prayer begins with honesty with God.


Psalm 13
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me.

Have you ever felt like you were praying the right words – but still somehow felt disconnected from God?

Have you ever felt angry or disappointed with God but tried to hide those feelings behind flowery and “proper” words?

Jesus taught us that prayer is a relationship – and therefore that prayer begins with honesty. When we hold back our “less than pleasant” emotions from God – we are like Adam and Eve hiding in the garden. Remember in Genesis when God pursued them saying, “Where are you?”

In the same way, God invites us to be completely honest with him. The psalmist understood that and blurts out what is almost an accusation, “Will you forget me forever?”

Take some time to open your heart completely before God? Is there any way in which you may have been withholding something – anger, disappointment, resentment, fear – from the One who knows and loves you perfectly? Trust that God is big enough to understand and absorb all that you carry in your heart. Ask Him to help you trust him and release those things to Him.

Use your journal if it helps you to write out your thoughts and prayers.