Prayer (2): God hears the prayers of the imperfect

Synopsis: The answer is always God, but will God hear me?

How many times have we felt like imposters? From the outside, everyone else seems to have “it” together. We show up with shame and guilt in our hearts and we just don’t know how to articulate our emotions. We’ve recently considered that God is a father who pities us and hears us when we call to him in the midst of our trials and failures, but we still fight with a feeling that “sure, he’ll hear someone else, but not me.”

Psalm 142:1-3 might give us some comfort in those times. David was in the cave, fleeing from Saul and surrounded by men who urged him to kill the Lord’s anointed. The men with David were the discontents and escapees, and they were dragging him down spiritually. So, he prays to God:

Maschil of David; A Prayer when he was in the cave. 1 I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication. 2  I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble. 3  When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me.

What beautiful language: David “poured out his complaint”. First of all, that word complaint can be translated “musing” or “meditation”. This Hebrew word is used by Job five times when talking about his sorrows (Job 7:13, 9:27, 10:1, 21:4, 23:2), Hannah uses it when she pours out her complaint and grief before God (1 Samuel 1:16), and psalmists use it 5 times. These individuals had thoughts, fears, worries, and doubts sloshing back and forth in their heads and they took them all and just poured them out before God: all those emotions, all of those doubts, all of that trust, all of that fear.

If we think about the analogy of pouring something out, what would be the opposite of pouring out a complaint? It would be keeping it in. It would be bottling it up, wouldn’t it? While there may be a time to bottle up some emotions when talking to some people, that’s not the case with God. He wants us to pour out our musings. We let God know our path, where we think we’re headed. When we feel overwhelmed, as he says in verse 3, that’s the time to pour out everything in our heads to God in prayer. He wants to hear.

Jeremiah tells us to pray in even stronger words in Lamentations 2:18 and 19:

18  Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease. 19  Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

That’s desperation that we hear.

We’d like to clarify something important. We’re not suggesting that we can approach God in whatever way we like. Our attitude in all this is key. We need to have Godly fear or reverence when we speak to Him, but we can and should be open with Him. We may be angry, and we can and should tell God that “I’m feeling angry”. And when we do, we have to acknowledge that we are likely not right to be feeling that way (Psalm 58:6; Jonah 4:4, 9). When we pray, we shouldn’t carry an attitude of arrogance or pride. There must be reverence and fear in how we approach our Heavenly Father. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be honest with Him about the feelings that He already knows that we have.

Let’s consider James 5 for a moment. We know the context of persecution and pride, and the importance of prayer and patience. He says in verse 17 and 18:

17  Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18  And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

What is God trying to tell us through James? The ESV says, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours…”

God wants to remind us that Elijah, despite being a man with a nature like ours, despite having the same passions, the same weaknesses, despite having told God that he thought he was the only faithful person left (1 Kings 19:10,14); when he prayed to God, he was heard.

This encouragement to pray to God about how we are feeling and what we are struggling with is reinforced by Paul in Philippians 4.

4  Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. 5  Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. 6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

That word “careful” means “anxious” or “troubled with cares”. Paul says that we need to escape that state of anxiety – and the only way to do so is to pour out those anxieties to God in prayer. He says: if you want to resolve that anxiety, in EVERYTHING by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known unto God. That word supplication is associated with need or penury. We ask because we don’t have the ability or the answers, not because we have already figured it out.

“O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” (Psalm 34:8)

nbsp;

---

Image credits

Feature Image by photosforyou from Pixabay