Episode #239 Honest Prayer, Real Connection: How to Talk with God as You Are – Small Steps, Big Faith

Hey friends, it's Jen. We're talking on this episode of Good God Talks about talking with God.

And as we talked about in the very last episode, healthy human relationships grow through shared experiences and healthy communication. We can see that on display in our own lives and relationships, and that applies to growing healthy relationships with God, too. The last episode we talked about shared experiences, and so if you missed that, check out that episode when you're done with this one.

But today we're talking about healthy communication. And there's lots of different elements of healthy communication from one person to another. In preparing for our time together today, the two that really jumped out at me are honesty and prioritizing communication.

For communication to be healthy and helpful it needs to be honest as we work through disagreements or hurts or disappointments with someone, we need to find ways to genuinely communicate truth with still grace and consideration of the other person.

We need to find ways to be honest and come as our genuine selves. Otherwise whatever relationship we grow won't be authentic. And that's the same way with God.
We get to come to him with our needs, with our doubts, and with our questions. We get to be our true, genuine selves. We don't have to polish ourselves up or over manage our emotions in order to draw near to God. We can come to him honestly. He can handle it, and he invites us to bring our true selves to him.

The other aspect is prioritizing communication. And I think unintentionally that can be missed a lot of times in the church because we don't know that we can communicate with God.

I know that was my experience for a lot of years in the faith. I didn't know that I could hear God speak. I didn't know he wanted to have back and forth communication with me. Even in my perspective of prayer, it was more of a monologue than a dialogue. I would offer my requests to him, hoping he heard me and hoping I would see a response in some way at some point. And so we weren't really communicating with each other.

Well, God invites us to enter into genuine communication with him. back and forth conversation to hear what he would have to say and to be listened to and to talk and engage just like we do in healthy relationships.

And it takes practice to grow in that.
And it also takes intentionality to prioritize communication with God.

It can be quicker or simpler to just settle for reading scripture and trying to learn things from it. Or listening to what someone else might have received from God so that we can take it as our own and also apply that truth. But God offers us more than that.

He invites us to prioritize communication and connection. And I don't know what that looks like for you today. I know one of the things he's been talking with me about is simply staying mindful of him as I go throughout the day and looking for opportunities to talk with him about things that I might not have considered before.

Maybe for you it's prioritizing talking with God as you read the Bible. I don't know what that is, but I know that it's a beautiful aspect we all get to walk in as we experience more life with God and as we grow in our relationships with Him.

The passage I want to share with you today comes from Psalm 145:17-18.

“The Lord is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness. The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth.” (Psalm 145:17-18 NLT)

I hope that encourages you today that you can draw close to God and be your authentic self, to call on him in truth. That he is righteous in all of his ways, including that he is filled with kindness toward you, and he promises to be close when you call on him.

And so here's a question that you can take in the conversation with God right now:

God, how do you want to grow our relationship?

I know there's things that he'll share with you.

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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