Honesty before God - First15 - October 8
Weekly Overview:
God’s goodness over our lives far exceeds anything we’ve experienced. We’ve only yet splashed around in the shallows of God’s deep love and mercy. In order to dive deeper into the fullness of life available to us, we must learn how to posture our hearts. May your relationship with God be enriched this week as you position yourself to receive all your loving heavenly Father has to give.
Scripture:“And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:13
Devotional:
I’ve spent countless, exhausting hours in my fleeting life working to portray myself as a person I know I’m not. Whether in relationships with friends, family, my spouse, or God, I find myself consistently creating a facade for myself I hope others will like better than who I actually am. I feared that if I truly opened myself up to others and got rejected, I would have nothing left. If I am fully myself, will I be enough?
Hebrews 4:13 says, “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Scriptures like this used to seriously frighten me. The idea that an all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly holy God knew everything I had ever done was too invasive for me. If I couldn’t even muster up the courage to truly be myself to man, how could I handle being “naked and exposed” to my heavenly Father?
It wasn’t until I began experiencing the powerful, overwhelming love of my heavenly Father that these frail, false constructions began to fall apart brick-by-brick, lie after lie. The process God takes us through in unveiling our hearts represents his perfect kindness, patience, and pursuit of us. He waits for us to come before him, openly and honestly, patiently beckoning us with his love. He is perfectly accepting of us as long as we don’t fake it with him. As soon as the prodigal son came home in a posture of humility and honesty, he was immediately embraced, accepted, and offered intimate relationship with his Father once again.
It’s absolutely vital that we pursue honesty before God because he will not address what is not true. He will not try and help this false projection. He will not meet with that which doesn’t truly exist. Brennan Manning writes in his book Abba’s Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging, “The false self is frustrated because he never hears God’s voice. He cannot, since God sees no one there.” Thomas Merton says of the false self, “This is the man I want myself to be but who cannot exist, because God does not know anything about him” (Merton’s Place of Nowhere, James Finley).
To be honest before God is to invite a perfectly loving, powerful, and grace-filled Father into the places of our lives that need him the most. He longs to be asked into the very wounds we work so tirelessly to cover up. He longs to heal and transform the darkest, hardest places of our hearts we’ve hidden into fertile soil that can bear the fruit of his Spirit. He longs for us to be fully known by him in every way that we might experience the full depths of his powerful, transformational love.
Take time in guided prayer to truly open your heart to God and be honest. Tell him your doubts, fears, and failures. Open up the parts of your past that you have worked so hard to cover up. And let his love in that you might experience healing in his powerful presence.
Guided Prayer:
1. Meditate on the importance of being honest before God. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with courage to be vulnerable before God in faith.
“And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:13
“Would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.” Psalm 44:21
2. Open up your heart to God and be truly honest with him. How are you feeling right now? How have you acted toward him? Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any places of your heart that are veiled and kept in shadows.
3. Ask God to help you receive his love in the areas of your heart that are in desperate need of him. Open up to him the places of your past that have plagued you for so long. Ask him how he feels about you that you might receive healing.
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3
Making space in our lives to receive healing for our hearts from the Lord is a vital exercise in spiritual growth. We don’t have to be plagued by the wounds from our past. We don’t have to spend so much of our time and energy trying to cover up times we were genuinely hurt. The only path to growth passes through God’s healing presence. He wants to address and heal that which you might feel has formed you. He wants to tear up all the work you’ve done to harden your heart that you might truly live healed, free, and vulnerable. Pursue healing for your heart and experience the life available to you in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Extended Reading: Psalm 103
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