PRAYING WITH AUTHENTICITY_ Advise about prayer can be contradictory: “You can say anything to God because God loves you” versus “Don’t be negative or despairing – remember you’re talking to the God of the universe.” Authenticity in prayer is difficult. Bringing our true selves to God is tricky because God is so good and pure and we are not . As we saw last time, prayer is a conversation between unequals. Yet the Psalms illustrate how God wants us to brin g our unsanitised thoughts to prayer. We’re free to state our doubts, fears and questions, yet this isn’t the same as blurting out self-focused rants! We c an learn to pray authentically and with reverence and trust... [Group discussion starter] When you've heard someone pray aloud in an authentic way, how did this help you or not help you? Psalm 74 is the prayer of a child of God in great pain. The powerful empire of Babylon had carried away citize...
CONVERSATION WITH GOD_ If you want a picture of what it looks like to connect with God, you might start by looking at how God interacted with someone God called a friend. One such friend was Abraham (see Isaiah 41:8, 2 Chron 20:7 & James 2:23). Abraham’s friendship with God was characterised by ongoing conversations. Recorded in Genesis 12-22 ( perhaps many more weren’t recorded), these conversations are filled with the back-and-forth elements of close communication – questions, guesses, reassertions , calculated pauses, statements of fear and doubt, careful restatements of each other’s thoughts. Yet, how often do we neglect to learn the art of conversation with God? Perhaps we don’t feel like we’re “good enough” to talk with God? But if goodness were a qualification, Abraham would’ve been excluded. For example, just after Abraham had a conversation with God (filled with miracles and visions), he showed a lack of confidence in G...