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Honest Conversation with God

Honest Conversation with God.

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Honest Conversation with God

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  1. Honest Conversation with God

  2. Father in Heaven, we praise You for being the God You are, and we thank You for Your mercy and Your many blessings, spiritual and material. We pray Your blessings on the sick and anyone who is struggling. Please forgive us of our sins and help us to be more forgiving of others. We ask for Your guidance, wisdom, and strength that we might not fall to temptation. Most of all Father we thank You for Your Son, in Whom we have our salvation, and in Whose name we pray. Amen.

  3. One-Word Descriptions • Familiar • Simple • Reverent • Humble • Complete • Appropriate

  4. God, why have You given me this life. Others prosper while I fail so miserably. God, must I remind You of Your nature, merciful and full of loving kindness? Why then, do those who call on Your name continue to suffer and hurt while those who oppose you thrive? Even trusting little children, whom You claim to hold so dear, often suffer the most. I try to do right, but am unable to follow through. You have made me this way, but I do not have the strength I need. How long must I wait to see Your promises become real in my life? Show me something so that I’ll know You really even care.

  5. One-Word Descriptions • Impertinent, Insolent, Insubordinate, Irreverent • Demanding • Testing • Confrontational • Rash • Genuine

  6. Heroes of Faith from Hebrews 11 • Gideon • Abraham • Moses • David • Jacob

  7. Gideon and the Battle of the Midianites by Nicolas Poussin, classical French painter of the 1600’s

  8. Judges 6:12-17 12The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.” 13Then Gideon said to him, “O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’…….

  9. Judges 6:12-17 (Cont’d) ……But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14The Lord looked at him and said, “Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?” 15He said to Him, “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel?......

  10. Judges 6:12-17 (Cont’d) …..Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” 16But the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.” 17So Gideon said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who speakest with me.”

  11. Engraving from the Bowyer Bible, 1795, Bolton Museum, England Genesis 15:1-8 1After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.” 2Abram said, “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.”

  12. Genesis 15:1-8 (Cont’d) 4Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” 5And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

  13. Genesis 15:1-8 (Cont’d) 6Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. 7And He said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” 8He said, “O Lord God, how may I know that I will possess it?”

  14. Genesis 18:17-18 17The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed? Abraham and the Three Angels, Italian painterGiovanni Andrea de Ferrari, 1660, Saint Louis Art Museum

  15. Genesis 18:22-25 22Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before the Lord. 23Abraham came near and said, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?

  16. Genesis 18:22-25 (Cont’d) 25Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”

  17. Exodus 33:11-15 11Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend…… Moses Viewing the Promised Land, by Frederic Edwin Church, American Landscape painter, 1846

  18. Exodus 33:11-15 (Cont’d) 12Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people!’ But You Yourself have not let me know whom You will send with me. Moreover, You have said, ‘I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’ 13Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight,…..

  19. Exodus 33:11-15 (Cont’d) 13…….let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people.” 14And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.”

  20. Psalms 13:1-4 1How long, O Lord?Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? 2How long shall I take counsel in my soul,Having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? By French engraver Gustave Doré from Doré's English Bible, 1866

  21. Psalms 13:1-4 (Cont’d) 3Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, 4And my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken.

  22. Genesis 28:20-22 20Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, 21and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God. 22This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.” Jacob’s Dream by Spanish Painter: Bartolome Esteban Murillo, 1660

  23. Job and His Friends by IlyaRepin, 1869, The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

  24. Job 10:1-3 1“I loathe my own life; I will give full vent to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.2“I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me; Let me know why You contend with me. 3‘Is it right for You indeed to oppress, to reject the labor of Your hands, and to look favorably on the schemes of the wicked?

  25. You might say……. • Well, I’m not Abraham, Moses, David, Jacob, or Job. • God was patient and wise, taking the long view, confident they would rise to the challenge. • They were on a faith journey, and these conversations with God were early in that journey. • It doesn’t necessarily follow that He was pleased with their responses.

  26. I would also offer that… • God knows full well that He is working with feet of clay. • God may enjoy the challenge of partnering with man. • It opens the door for Him to challenge us right back. • He can do something with a faith that is strong enough to question or negotiate with Him. • Honest conversation about doubt is an important, perhaps indispensible, first step toward greater faith.

  27. Some prayer language we may not use often enough “Why, When, How, ……? “I know…..but…… “Surely God, You…… “If You will……then I promise I will…… “Consider…….. “Show me……. “Nevertheless, not my will but Thine………

  28. “I believe, help my unbelief” Mark 9:20-24 (Also Matt 17 and Luke 9) 20They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. Transfiguration, Italian Renaissance painter Raphael, 1520, Vatican Museum

  29. Mark 9:20-24 22 ”……..if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” 23And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” 24Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”

  30. “Lord, You know that I believe in You, but I have these ……….. • Questions • Doubts • Troubling inconsistencies • Times when Idon’t fully trust You • Times of • despair, • frustration, • or anger

  31. One true-to-life example of a truly honest conversation with God……. from Prayer, Does it Make any Difference, byPhillip Yancey “ God, I hated you after the rape!....... How could you let this happen to me? And I hated the people in this church who tried to comfort me. I didn’t want comfort, I wanted revenge. I wanted to hurt back. I thank you, God, that you didn’t give up on me, and neither did some of these people. You kept after me, and I come back to you now and ask that you heal the scars in my soul. ”

  32. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,To all who call upon Him in truth. Psalms 145:18

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