Knowing God

Knowing God

Bible: Psalm 88

Reading

Why, Lord, do you reject me and hide your face from me? (V.14).

I’ve found that the Bible includes lots of people who got really disappointed with God. Job and Moses had it out with Him. So did Habakkuk, Jeremiah and many of the psalm writers. It seems strange for the Bible, the “Word of God”, to include so many examples of people struggling in their relationship with God. But actually these stories teach us something important.

When there are fall outs between friends, sometimes the relationship may get worse before it gets better. Hurt people have to talk about how they feel (which can be painful) before they can start to grow close again. The people in the Bible don’t play down their feelings or hush up their questions. They talk with God openly, honestly and sometimes really angrily! Just look at the end of Psalm 88 . . . The psalms teach us about being real with God. If we want a personal relationship with Him, then we have to be ourselves. Knowing and talking with Him is not about saying the right words or repeating certain prayers. It’s about sharing what’s really going on: what’s making us happy, sad, excited, upset? What are we hoping for? What are we struggling with? What are we learning about Him? From the psalms, we learn to bring to God whatever we feel about Him. We don’t need to cover up our confusion or mistakes. We just need to come to Him as we are, and let Him work in our lives as He wants.

GOD IS BIG ENOUGH TO COPE

WITH OUR HONESTY!

Youth Edition – Our Daily Bread Ministries