Honest with God

It is not easy to be honest with God. Rarely do any of us face up to actualities when we pray. But whom do we think we are fooling? Either we think God is very obtuse or else we presume upon his grace and mercy and salve our consciences with the feeling that he does not know or does not care.

We may try to sweep our sins under the rug, assume a hypocritical air of innocence, and go our own willful way. But God sees no rug, only the unconfessed and unrepented sins that form a barrier between us and him. These sins may be sins of the spirit (such as unbelief, pride, jealousy, envy, censoriousness) or of the flesh (such as lust, intemperance, love of money, dishonesty).

Failure to be honest with God is a continuing source of unhappiness, frustration, and ineffectiveness as Christians. On the other hand, complete honesty in confessing all sins, whether they be of thought, word, or deed, brings peace of mind and spirit and is the first step to a life of usefulness as a Christian.

Psalm 139 tells us that God knows our every thought and motive. “Even before a word is on my tongue, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether” (v. 4, RSV). There is no place to which we can flee and escape God. The darkness cannot cover us: “even darkness is not dark to thee, the night is as bright as the day; for darkness is as light with thee” (v. 12).

Little wonder that David ends this psalm, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (vv. 23, 24).

Our unwillingness to be honest with God may stem from our failure to realize his all-seeing eye. “Before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:13). Is this a frightening thought? Far from it. It is comforting to know that God, who knows and sees into the depths of our hearts, sees our feeble aspirations for righteousness and meets them with his own loving concern and help.

David knew well the difference between being honest with God and trying to hide his sins. When he prayed, “Clear thou me from hidden faults” (Ps. 19:12b), he was admitting the tendency to think that things done in secret are unknown to God. In Psalm 32 he tells of the anguish of soul he suffered when he did not confess his sins and the joy and peace that came with honest confession.

What we are in our hearts God already knows. Why foolishly pretend that we are something else? We often deceive others, but we can never deceive God.

How are we dishonest with God?

Think about our prayers. When we pray, “Forgive our sins,” do we not hasten by or gloss over that lustful thought and pretend it has escaped God’s notice? Do we not conveniently ignore the dishonest act, the “cutting of a corner” in a business deal, rather than explicitly confessing it? Often we harbor envy or jealousy against someone; do we confess these specific sins?

There can be no honesty with God without confession and repentance. Because these essentials are evaded, individual Christians and the Church are weak.

There can be no power in prayer if between us and God there stands unconfessed sin. “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Ps. 66:18). The confession of guilt is the door to forgiveness. Repentance is the sure way to be heard.

We are also not honest with God until we are willing to submit to his will in every area of our lives. Christ did not come to redeem us so that we should live thereafter according to our own desires. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that God wants the best for his children and that the best is found only in conformity to his will. There is no honesty in thinking we can hold to God with one hand while we cling to the world with the other. Honesty demands that we obey him in every plan and in every part of our lives.

We are not honest with God until we admit the enormity of our own sinfulness—confessed to him in detail—and the enormity of his love, mercy, and forgiveness in Christ.

To presume upon the grace and mercy of God without confessing and repenting only adds to our sins. The Apostle Jude speaks of “ungodly persons who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness” (Jude 4b), while Paul speaks of the idea of sinning that grace may abound as a “ghastly thought” (Phillips). Are not most of us guilty of claiming mercy and forgiveness without giving honest thought to open and full confession?

Honesty with God is both intellectual and emotional. It demands truthfulness in our estimate of ourselves, a recognition of the nature of sin and its many manifestations in our own hearts. David says, “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart,” and, “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Ps. 51:6, 17).

God, the One who is Creator and Preserver of life, the One who is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, the One who is altogether holy and sovereign, is full of love, mercy, and compassion. Honesty demands that we come to him in humility and contrition, hiding nothing, confessing all. In this way we receive the pardon, blessings, and fellowship he is so anxious to give. To approach him in any other way is sheer presumption. To think we can hide anything from him or evade the truth before him is folly.

The Prophet Jeremiah was honest with both God and man. Today we should heed his words: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practice kindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the LORD’ ” (Jer. 9:23, 24).

The Apostle Paul was equally honest with God. In all his letters, one senses his unswerving determination to see himself and the world around him in the light of God’s revealed truth, and because of this he speaks to us today. Aware of his past, he spoke of himself as the chief of sinners. Aware of God’s redemptive work in his own heart, he could speak of being crucified with Christ. Such honesty has its great reward—complete surrender to and identification with the living Saviour.

As I search my own heart, I realize how often I have failed to be honest with God. And I know such failure stifles my Christian life at the very point where it should be strengthened.

How absurd it is to think we have deceived the One from whom nothing can be hid. The best way to change is to start being honest. Hide nothing from God, and you will find a joy and peace that can come in no other way.

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