What is it about God that makes us shy about being open to Him? He gave His life for us and died for our sins because He loves us so much. Why do we hesitate to come to Him? Why do we hide things from Him when He already knows everything there is to know about us, even stuff we don’t even realize we’ve said and done. We hide from Him. We run from Him. We ask others to talk to Him for us instead of us going to Him ourselves. I have people again and again asking me to pray for them and their situation, when they can talk to Him themselves as much as I can talk to Him. Why should I be any different than they are? One time the Lord told me regarding one request, “Why is she asking you what I think about her situation? Why doesn’t she ask Me?” I didn’t know what to say to the Lord, and I didn’t have the heart to tell that person what the Lord told me. In short, we have no reason to avoid talking to the Lord. The Lord wants us to talk to Him directly. No excuses.
The thing that will make God love us more is for us to talk to Him and be ourselves with Him. I mean that really with all of my heart. The thing that will make Him love us more is when we talk to Him all the time. He just loves it when someone talks to Him and makes Him their friend. Why should this be such an odd thing or something remarkable or incredible? He loves us so much that He came down and became a human being like us, so that He can save us from our sins. Why should it be such a surprise that God would want us to talk to Him and make Him our friend?
One of the main problems many have when it comes to talking to Him is confidence. I think for most of us, we don’t feel good enough to come to Him. We don’t feel like He should be acknowledging us or caring about us. I think it’s because we’re comparing ourselves to what we learned the Bible tells us about Him: That He is holy and pure and righteous, and well, we’re not. We don’t even come close to being holy and righteous, and now we’re going to come to Him and be ourselves with Him? That’s like asking a bug to become human. It’s just not going to happen.
Let me suggest something for your prayer life – throw out your entire preconceived notions about God and what He must think of you based on your fear of Him in the Bible. You’ve got to seek Him. We’ve got to find out the truth about Him. The only way to do that is to be truthful ourselves. What we sow we will reap the Bible tells us. (Galatians 6:7) If you sow truth you will gain truth. If we are true about ourselves to the Lord, then we will receive His truth back. We will receive the answer we are looking for from Him. He will reveal Himself to us and He will show us His truth. The Bible tells us that the truth shall set us free. {John 8:32} There is nothing more rewarding and exhilarating than to experience the truth of God’s love for us for ourselves.
We’ve got to stop coming to Him based on what we were taught growing up with the Bible. We’ve got to stop believing that our sins are greater than His love for us. So many of us have been brought up to imagine a God that is ready to pounce on us, or to send out lightning if we’ve displeased Him. We’ve got to start imagining instead a God that hung at the cross, bled and died because He loves us so much. If we picture a God that is in the wilderness in the Old Testament sending down fire from heaven every time they whined to Moses and Aaron, well, we will definitely want to run away from Him. But if we imagine a God that hung at the cross with His precious blood pouring out because of His love for us, well, then we will definitely want to come to Him. So it’s simple, imagine that and more. Imagine a God that loves us so much He wants us to talk to Him all the time. He wants us to be ourselves with Him, seeking after who He is, with no pretensions or apprehensions about His love for us. If we seek Him for who He is, He will reveal Himself to us. His love is boundless. His love is greater than anything we can ever, ever do. But we will never know how true His love is for us if we’re not testing it through our talks with Him. The more we’re honest with Him the more He will reveal Himself to us, guaranteed. So many times we forget that Jesus Christ has come and has parted the veil at the Temple. There is no more a hindrance or barrier between God and man. That was all done away with when Christ died at the cross. God is accessible now more than ever before and is easier to talk to than the President of the United States or the Queen of England. Seriously, you can be totally honest with your thoughts, your desires and feelings to Him and He’ll still love you. As a matter of fact, He will love you more for it. What He wants from us is openness and honesty. What He wants is a heart to heart talk with us. He wants us to be ourselves with Him. If we talk to Him with all of our hearts, we will find the most understanding and endearing friend we will ever meet. If you want to endear yourself to God you must spend time talking to Him. It doesn’t matter what it is you want to talk about, just talk to Him from your heart. Even if you think it’s the most trivial, pointless, and insignificant subject, talk to Him anyway. He will listen, and care about it because He loves us so much. Guaranteed.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. {Romans 5:8}
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. {John 15:13}
I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. {John 10:11}
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. {John 3:16}
Prayer
Thank You so much Lord Jesus for Your great love for us. Thank You so much that Your desire is to save us from our sins and help us to live an abundant life on this earth.
Please Jesus, help us to love You. Help us to trust in Your great love for us and talk to You. Help us to talk to You and not be lazy about it because You will bless us and make it well for us. We will have more joy and life more abundantly if we bring all our cares to You.
I love You, Lord Jesus and I ask for all of these things in Your sweet and wonderful name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
