This is the first installment in this series. You can view part 2 here and part 3 here.
Now I’m only writing from experience. I’m not writing this because I have all the answers, far from it. If there’s anything, I continue to be on my journey to learn more from God so I can find more answers. There is one thing for sure I am finding out though: No matter how miserable I am, if I just talk to the Lord, even for half an hour, I feel better than when I started. And of course the more I spend time with Him the more I feel better and better.
There’s a secret to talking to God, however. You’ve got to know how to talk to Him and find Him, so you can find His comfort. You can’t just cry and weep and then walk away. If you don’t feel better it’s because you’re not praying right or you’re not praying at all, you’re just crying or being miserable. You’re not making an effort to connect with Him. Without connection with God you will not feel better, guaranteed. If you just cry and cry and not talk to Him with your heart you will not feel better.
Prayer takes an effort. Forming thoughts and talking to God takes effort. You have to make an effort to feel better. With true prayer you feel better the more you spend time with the Lord. If I don’t feel better, there’s something I’m not doing right. It’s either I’m giving up too soon, or I’m not engaging God. In my experience there are few things I need to do as I come to Him.
The first thing is having an imagination. If I don’t have it and am having a hard time using it, I’m going to have a terrible time staying in prayer. Imagination is a tool God gave to us that is so powerful. He came down in the time of Tower of Babel to confound the language of the people. The Bible actually stated that God was concerned about their imagination. It tells us,
And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. {Genesis 11:6}
Our imagination can be such a powerful tool for our own good or for our own destruction. The scripture tells us:
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. {2 Corinthians 10:5}
Our thoughts and imaginations are so important to connect with God. Before anything can become possible in our world it all starts first with our minds, in our imagination. The chair you’re sitting on was first conceived in someone’s imagination. The pen you’re holding, the phone you’re talking into, the car you drive, on and on. Everything we see started out first in someone’s mind. So are the things that God has created in our world. Everything started out in His mind. Before the cross became a reality He already saw it before the foundation of the world. He already had a Lamb prepared, even before He spoke the world into existence. {Revelation 13:8}
How much more powerful then when we imagine God, the great Creator of mankind and the spirits of this world, who can be anywhere at any given time and moment, being there with us as we talk to Him. Prayer will not be the same anymore. It will become a wonderful and exciting experience with God. God wants us to use our imagination for this very reason, to connect with Him, so that He becomes so very real to us. Because the more He is real to us, the more we will come to Him. The more we come to Him, the more we will love Him. And that is what He wants more than anything – for us to love Him.
The second most important thing to have is faith. Faith coupled with imagination is a powerful tool that will get you feeling better in no time at all by talking to God. We’ve got to imagine God is present, and powerful enough to know that you are talking to Him. We have to have faith to believe that He loves us and cares so much for us, that He is listening to us and hears us. We have to believe that He can do anything, including hearing our prayers and granting us the desires of our hearts. When we imagine Him there with us, and believe He loves us so much because He is our Heavenly Father, there will be no stopping us. Prayer will not be boring anymore.
The third thing to feeling better, which is the key to entering into His presence and bringing Him near to you, is to ask for His grace and forgiveness. There’s no if, ands, or buts about it. He’s a holy God and requires holiness. The Bible tells us without holiness we cannot see the Lord. {Hebrews 12:14} If we want God to come, we’ve got to repent before Him and ask for His grace and forgiveness. It doesn’t matter what it is you’ve done. You need to repent and tell the Lord, “Lord Jesus, I ask for Your grace and forgiveness upon me and for all of my sins. Please Father, forgive me of my sins, I pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.” When you’ve got that squared away then you can move on to talking to Him and presenting your case or prayers before Him.
The fourth thing to do is to know what you really want for God to do for you. Like I said, we can’t just cry before Him and walk away. We’ve got to engage Him and connect with Him by talking to Him. Make an effort. Tell Him what’s troubling you and then tell Him what you want for Him to do for you. It’s so simple but so many times we don’t want to make the effort to do this. We get so overwhelmed and want Him to be our genie to just make our problems go away and make us suddenly feel better. Even in a fantasy world with a genie in it you’re actually required to tell him what you want. He’s not just going to assume what you want. With the Lord, if He just does things for us we will soon forget about Him. We will take Him for granted and will not ever even come to remember what He’s done for us. We will not even recognize that He’s done something for us, because we never told Him we wanted it. We will just assume it’s a coincidence or worse yet, that our own efforts have done it for us. That’s the reason why He will not just grant everyone’s heart’s desires. He wants to be acknowledged. He wants a relationship. He died to have this. He’s not going to throw that sacrifice away. He wants people to engage Him in a conversation. He wants a relationship.
I remember just recently pouring my heart and thoughts to the Lord about something that was grieving me, and when I was done I clearly heard in my heart from the Lord, “What do you want for me to do?” I thought about it, and even asked the Lord what He thinks is the best solution for it. But I told Him what I thought and wished so much could happen. After I was finished telling the Lord He told me He will take care of it.
He wants a relationship. He wants me to have a conversation with Him. It makes Him feel a part of me and I with Him. It’s so crucial to tell the Lord, not only what’s bothering us but also what we would have Him do for us. We have to tell Him. We have to talk to Him and let Him know.
People say, “I don’t need to tell God what I need because He knows already what we need.” Sure God knows what we need. He knows our ending from our beginning. But that’s like saying I don’t need to pray, or that prayer is not important because God knows everything already. In that case Jesus wouldn’t have commanded us to “Watch and pray.” {Matthew 26:41} Or taught the disciples the way to pray. What is prayer but a holier word to describe talking to God? We must talk to Him if we want to feel better.
Do you know that God was actually upset about His own people for crying out loud with their sorrow and burdens but not to Him? He said they howled in their beds but not to Him. We can cry and be miserable all we like, but if we’re not talking to Him and engaging Him and directing our cries to Him, we’re not praying to Him. We can cry to ourselves and not feel better, or we can cry to Him and feel better. It’s our choice. He said in Hosea:
And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me. {Hosea 7:14}
To Be Continued on the next blog post…
Prayer
Father, I thank You that You never ever change. No matter what happens in this life I will always find You available to help me because Your love is faithful for me until the end. I thank You so much Lord Jesus for giving Your life away at the cross for my sins.
I pray for more faith in Your love for me Jesus. I pray for more guidance in knowing how to talk to You and how to engage You in my prayer. Help me to know Your voice and see You in my mind, so that my prayer life will become more consistent and powerful. Help me to know You more Lord Jesus each and every time I pray. I ask this Father in Your most wonderful and precious name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
Related Post: How To Feel Better When You’r Miserable {Part II}
Related Post: How To Feel Better When You’r Miserable {Part III}
