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"Prayer" Part 2 of 3 from the 2022 Summer/Autumn Vision Newsletter
Perhaps your house has a junk drawer; a place where all manner of things gets tossed together with the expectation of future use or necessity. We could understand our hearts in a similar way: there are relationships, desires, feelings that are right at the forefront (possibly like scissors or rubber bands that we know are in the drawer, and can always find). But to really know what lives in the dark corners we have to dump the whole drawer out on the table every once in a while, and sort through its contents; discarding what doesn’t belong or what we no longer need, and organizing those items which are necessary and expedient.
Pouring out our heart to God bears certain similarities. Like sorting through the drawer, it takes time and effort. Even though God is all-knowing, exposing all the things we’ve kept pushed to the back of our mind and heart also brings a certain vulnerability into our relationship with Him. Perhaps we have a grudge, bitterness, anger, hurt, or pain pushed into the recesses of our heart. When we lay everything before our compassionate Creator, He then lovingly helps us to sort it all out; that which is important, that which we have to work on, the situations that He will care for, and also those things that we need to let go of.
We can see how pouring our hearts out to God can change one’s perspective clearly in the Psalms, for example Psalm 13:
How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and hear me, O Lord my God;
Enlighten my eyes,
Lest I sleep the sleep of death;
Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”;
Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
But I have trusted in Your mercy;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me.
In just a few verses, the psalmist, who was clearly in despair at the beginning of their prayer, places trust in God and even rejoices and sings at what God has done for them. The writer of Psalm 139 clearly understands the importance of laying their soul bare before God, ending the chapter with – Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
As we come closer to the end of the year, perhaps this would be an appropriate exercise in our endeavor to grow ever closer to our heavenly Father.