How to talk to God

David's psalms are noteworthy for the extent to which he pours out his emotions before God. He's not concerned with  delivering smooth words or maintaining a cool demeanor. In fact, he often sounds desperate, almost child-like, for God's mercy and comfort.

In the same way that a child needs his parents, Jesus likewise stresses that we all must seek God with child-like dependence (Mark 10:15, KJV),

Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.

With this in mind, when we pray today, let us base our prayers on David's words in Psalm 38:9 (KJV),

Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.

What to strive for in prayer

Psalm 34:1 (KJV) summarizes our ideal approach to prayer,

I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

We can pray about all kinds of stuff, so long as, as noted in James 1:6, that stuff conforms with God's will. But, as this verse notes, praise must be the foundation of our prayers. And that praise should occur "continually," which, as noted in a previous post, essentially means "very frequently."

So as we approach our prayers, let's let simple and frequent words of praise form the foundation of those prayers.

Sins from within

My previous post focused on avoiding the sins of society. But we can't blame all of our sins on "society." Many of our sins spring up from deep within our sinful natures.

A recent sermon by Kyle Graham, from whom I borrow some material for this post, focuses on Noah's behavior after the flood (Genesis 9:20-21, NLT),

After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard. One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent.

The original Hebrew word, translated here as "naked," has a negative connotation, thus implying poor behavior on the part of Noah. Note that, with this event occurring after the flood, the otherwise upright Noah could not blame "society," because there was no society. It was destroyed in the flood! Noah's sin came from his own sinful nature.

Noah's story does have a happy ending, however, as evidenced by his name being mentioned in Hebrews 11 as a great example of faith. (Some people refer to that chapter as the "Hall of Fame of Faith.")

For us, Noah's story provides a cautionary tale. We cannot avoid sin by removing ourselves from society, because our inner beings also are sinful. As Jesus said in Matthew 26:41 (NLT),

Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!

So, following Jesus' advice, let us stay vigilant and pray.

Avoiding the sins of society

In Exodus 34:12 (NLT), God says to the Israelites,

Be very careful never to make a treaty with the people who live in the land where you are going. If you do, you will follow their evil ways and be trapped.

Note that God does not say, "Avoid the land." Rather, he warns the people about conforming to the ways of the land. Some other English Bibles translate the word "treaty" as "covenant." Whatever the word, it implies a formal acceptance of the activities of society.

These instructions apply to us, too. We cannot avoid society, but we must take care not to participate in activities that, while acceptable to society, are sinful in they eyes of God.

Now, that doesn't mean we should become social troublemakers. Peter says (1 Peter 2:13-14, NLT),

For the Lord’s sake, respect all human authority—whether the king as head of state, or the officials he has appointed.

The important point, which must guide all our prayers, is that we should seek God's approval, not society's.

Asking for forgiveness

The book of Proverbs contains quality advice for living a spiritual life. But upon first glance, certain passages might seem not to apply to us. For example, chapter 6:1-4 (NLT) reads,

My child, if you have put up security for a friend’s debt

or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger—

if you have trapped yourself by your agreement

and are caught by what you said—

follow my advice and save yourself,

for you have placed yourself at your friend’s mercy.

Now swallow your pride;

go and beg to have your name erased.

Many of us lack the financial resources ever to find ourselves in the position to "put up security for" or "guarantee" the debts of another. So do those verses apply to us?

Reading through those verses again, the real problem is that the person has been "caught by what [he] said." And, unfortunately, we've all been in that position. We say things to others -- and, even more problematic, to God -- that we soon come to regret.

Too often, when we recognize that we've gotten ourselves into a fix, we pile sin on top of sin by scheming and manipulating and lying in an attempt to cover up the original problem. Solomon's advice is to "swallow [our] pride" and "beg to have [our] name erased" from the situation.

That sort of humility requires spiritual discipline. And spiritual discipline comes by praying without ceasing!