Can I Be Honest With You God?

God’s Response Through His Word

God desires honesty from us …

The king is pleased with words from righteous lips;
he loves those who speak honestly.
PROVERBS 16:13 (NLT)

But you desire honesty from the womb,
teaching me wisdom even there.
PSALM 51:6 (NLT)

Job spoke honestly with God …

As for me, I would speak directly to the Almighty.
I want to argue my case with God himself.
JOB 13:3 (NLT)

Yet God called Job His friend …

After God had finished addressing Job,
he turned to Eliphaz the Temanite and said,
“I’ve had it with you and your two friends.
I’m fed up!
You haven’t been honest
either with me or about me—
not the way my friend Job has.
JOB 42:7 (THE MESSAGE)

King David complained openly before God …

I cry out loudly to God,
loudly I plead with God for mercy.
I spill out all my complaints before him,
and spell out my troubles in detail:
PSALM 142:1-2 (THE MESSAGE)

Yet God commended David as …

“… a man after my own heart.
He will do everything I want him to do.”
ACTS 13:22 (NLT)

Actually being honest with God is a way of worshipping Him …

“It’s who you are and the way you live
that count before God.
Your worship must engage your spirit
in the pursuit of truth.
That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for:
those who are simply and honestly themselves
before him in their worship.
God is sheer being itself—Spirit.
Those who worship him
must do it out of their very being,
their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”
JOHN 4:23-24 (THE MESSAGE)

So be free to be real – who you truly are – before God! As Jesus said …

“If you stick with this,
living out what I tell you,
you are my disciples for sure.
Then you will experience for yourselves the truth,
and the truth will free you.”
JOHN 8:32 (THE MESSAGE)

On the journey with you,
Dave & Jan Dravecky

Pain, Peace, Prayer, Seeing Clearly, Words of Endurance

Cry Out To God

By connie on

May 12, 2014

- Pain, Peace, Prayer, Seeing Clearly, Words of Endurance

O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever?
How long will you look the other way?
How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,
with sorrow in my heart every day?
How long will my enemy have the upper hand?
Turn and answer me, O Lord my God!
Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.
PSALM 13:1-3 (NLT)

Sound familiar? King David’s desperate cry to God is echoed by many of us who find it difficult to see clearly in the midst of our suffering. God may seem far away – we may feel forgotten by Him – and we may feel as if we will die from the overwhelming grief in our hearts.

Where do we turn for help when we are feeling any of the above? King David’s relationship with God was such that when he could not see clearly and found himself confused, lonely and hurt – he cried out and questioned God …

Lord, why are you standing aloof and far away?
Why do you hide when I need you the most?
PSALM 10:1 (LB)

The prophet Elijah once found himself in such a bad place (1 Kings 19:1-18) that he cried out to God …

“I’ve had enough, … take away my life.
I’ve got to die sometime, and it might as well be now.”
1 KINGS 19:4 (LB)

And wretched, impoverished, grieving Job said that if he could talk to God …

I would tell him all
about my side of this argument,
and listen to his reply,
and understand what he wants.
JOB 23:4-5 (LB)

When we are overwhelmed by pain – when our circumstances scream, “This makes no sense!” many of us want the same thing – an audience with God –a one-on-one Q & A with God. We want relief. If we can’t escape the pain we at least want some kind of an explanation. When we have to endure what seems unendurable we want the comfort of knowing that God sees clearly and still holds our future in His able hands.

God responded to David, Elijah and Job – not necessarily in the way they expected or what they would have liked to hear – but His response enabled them to see and understand their circumstances more clearly.

So what about us: What if we could have a one-on-one conversation with God? What if we could ask our Creator some of our troublesome questions? How might He respond?

Over the next several weeks we will ask some of the questions we frequently ask of God when we are suffering and we can’t see or understand our circumstances clearly. For God’s response we went to the Bible – the Word of God – to see if He had already addressed those questions for us. We think what we found will amaze you and will open your eyes to help you see more clearly which will help you endure and find peace in whatever circumstances you face.

Lord, you know the hopes of humble people.
Surely you will hear their cries
and comfort their hearts
by helping them.
PSALM 10:17 (LB)

On the journey with you,
Jan & Dave Dravecky

Hope, Seeing Clearly, Words of Endurance

A Battlefield Perspective

By Nathan Solla on

April 30, 2014

- Hope, Seeing Clearly, Words of Endurance

Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground,
absorbed with the things right in front of you.
Look up, and be alert
to what is going on around Christ—
that’s where the action is.
See things from his perspective.
COLOSSIANS 3:2 (THE MESSAGE)

Two D-Day veterans were interviewed for a program commemorating the 61st anniversary of the famous World War II battle. The first veteran was a marine who fought the battle on the ground on Omaha Beach. The other was an Army reconnaissance pilot. He fought the battle in the air high above the seashore.

The Marine described the scene on the sand that day as right out of the movie “Saving Private Ryan.” Men were dropping all around him. It looked hopeless. He began to despair and said to himself, We’re going to lose. I can’t believe it. We’re going to lose.

“That’s how I felt in the heat of the battle that day,” he told the interviewer.

The pilot, however, described a completely different scene. He told the interviewer that he could see everything that was going on including the number of troops on the ground and where they were headed. “I got so excited,” he explained, “because I could see the overall battle. I remember saying out loud, We’re gonna win! We’re gonna win!”

These two men were engaged in the same battle – for the same cause – on the same day. But they had two very different perspectives on the conflict and its probable outcome. When we are in the heat of the battle, surrounded by overwhelming circumstances, like the Marine on Omaha Beach, we also can feel hopeless and near defeat. That is when we need to see our situation from a different perspective. We need a reconnaissance perspective – and God is more than happy to provide it.

It’s what we trust in
but don’t yet see that keeps us going.
1 CORINTHIANS 5:7 (THE MESSAGE)

On the journey with you,
Jan & Dave Dravecky

Hope, Pain, Seeing Clearly, Words of Endurance

Listening for Fresh Insights

By connie on

April 30, 2014

- Hope, Pain, Seeing Clearly, Words of Endurance

Wise men and women are always learning,
always listening for fresh insights.
PROVERBS 18:15 (THE MESSAGE)

Fresh insight – that is what is needed when we have a perspective meltdown due to the difficult times we all face. As I have gone through my perspective meltdowns and have watched others endure through it I have come to realize how shortsighted our human perspective is. We can’t see the whole picture but we live as if the little piece we do see is all there is!

In contrast, God sees the whole picture from beginning through eternity. He is the Alpha and the Omega. In our trials as we turn to Him and listen for fresh insights we can find hope and strength to endure by learning to view our life from God’s perspective – an Eternal Perspective.

I know it is not easy to always see your life from an Eternal Perspective especially when you are dealing with the painful here and now. But I am so grateful that God didn’t give up on me as I struggled to learn to see my suffering in light of eternity rather than what I could visually see and discern. I learned from His Word that …

There’s far more here than meets the eye.
The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow.
But the things we can’t see now will last forever.
2 CORINTHIANS 4:18 (THE MESSAGE)

But while I would waver between the here and now and what will last forever – God never gave up on me. One of the really cool things I have learned about Him is that even when I lose sight of His Eternal Perspective – He still loves me! When I take my eyes off Him and become fixated on this journey because it is really hard and I am hurting – he doesn’t wag his finger at me! And when I get stuck and can’t see beyond my immediate circumstances He keeps encouraging me to look to Him because He wants me to see clearly what He can see.

And the Good News is that as I look to Him I am drawn closer to His heart where I find comfort, understanding, and clarity as I endure the journey. My eyes are opened to clearly see and embrace the bigger perspective that is all about trusting Him to lead me to eternity with Him.

We don’t yet see things clearly.
We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.
But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright!
We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
1 CORINTHIANS 13:12 (THE MESSAGE)

On the journey with you,
Dave Dravecky

Prayer, Seeing Clearly, Words of Endurance

The Cry of a Questioning Heart