Practicing Transparency with God

Many years of my life (including many years of my Christian walk) went by before I knew I could be transparent with Him.

I am not sure anyone ever directly told me this, but I grew up thinking that I wasn’t supposed to talk to God about what I was feeling. I’m quite sure I thought He wouldn’t notice, anyhow.

I thought God was too big to see or notice me. 

I had been pretty closed off with practically everyone I knew, and I was the same way with God. Years would go by before I even attempted being transparent with Him.

As I gradually learned how to share with Him what was going on in the depths of my heart and life, (often testing the waters, first) I slowly started realizing it was ok to do this. And it wasn’t just ok, but it was something that became so healing for me.

Are you able to go before God and be transparent about the pain in your heart, and even be willing to admit when you need to turn away from something that has been pulling you away from Him? Going before Him in this way is always humbling and can also feel incredibly scary when you are not used to it. Psalm 62:8 says, “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah”

When experiencing deep pain, regret, or in need of healing, this is an excellent opportunity to practice transparency with God. When we’re in a situation that we know we need to surrender to Him, this is also an excellent time to be transparent with Him.  There are also times when we go through a season of deep grief or sorrow. Pouring our hearts out to God can make all the difference. It draws us closer to Him, rather than turning away when our hearts are hurting. Our situations may not immediately change, but our hearts will when we openly surrender these situations to Him and lay everything down before Him. In Psalm 13 (AMPC) David transparently pours his heart out to God:

“How long will You forget me, O Lord? Forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long must I lay up cares within me and have sorrow in my heart day after day? How long shall my enemy exalt himself over me?

“Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; lighten the eyes [of my faith to behold Your face in the pitchlike darkness], lest I sleep the sleep of death, Lest my enemy say, I have prevailed over him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I am shaken.

“But I have trusted, leaned on, and been confident in Your mercy and loving-kindness; my heart shall rejoice and be in high spirits in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me”. Have you been able to be transparent with God?  We need to be able to go before Him concerning everything. The situation you feel you can’t talk to Him about is the same situation you might need to talk to Him about. Learning to be transparent with Him can help set you free from the shame that often tries to hard to keep you quiet.

Part of practicing transparency with Jesus is having an awareness that He is with us always. We don’t have to wait to go to church or a conference to pour our hearts out to Him and hear from Him. He is with you always.

Practicing transparency with Jesus is something that can and should be part of our every day lives. We all know the Holy Spirit is here with us, but when we have an awareness that He is truly here with us and waiting to talk with us, we will know that we don’t have to wait for the “big stuff” to pour our hearts out to Him. Then when the big stuff comes, it won’t be so excruciatingly difficult to talk to Him openly about it.

I encourage you to start practicing transparency with God, if you haven’t already. Talk to Him in the car. Do this out loud. Be transparent. Say the real stuff, not what you think you should say.  He is waiting to build this kind of intimacy with you. Start out with one sentence if you don’t know how to say any more.

Maybe you used to do this but stopped. Don’t let guilt and condemnation continue to stand in the way. You can begin again. Pour your heart out to Him. What is something you can be transparent with Him about today?