Episode #404: Tell God the Random Stuff- Becoming Childlike

Hey, friend. We're starting off today's episode with a secret about growing in intimacy and close relationship with God that I learned over many years. I wish someone had told me to tell God the random stuff. Intimate relationship is not built exclusively through important conversations. It's in the everyday moments, the random things, the stuff you can laugh at and enjoy together and commiserate on.

And as I prepped for this episode, I started thinking about kids' fascination with rocks. If you've spent significant time with a child, you've probably been handed a rock or maybe a flower or a stick. Those are all in the same category here. We have rocks that are in our landscaping in the front of our house, and my kids refer to it as the rock garden, and each of them have gone through seasons of wanting to hunt for the latest special rock. Then they'll hand it to me and want me to appreciate this newfound treasure with them because “Look at it! Look how cool this rock is.” That's the vantage point of a child.

Kids share what catches their attention with people that they love. And I feel like sometimes adulthood has convinced us that God only cares about the important stuff. But we're His kids, and He's made us to walk in close relationship with Him as our good Father, and that includes the random stuff.

God's awareness of us is more than we can even comprehend, and I love how we see this evidenced throughout Scripture, including in Psalm 139, where it talks about how God knows us so intimately.

"You know when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from afar, even before a word is on my tongue. Behold, O Lord, You know it altogether."

When I sit and I rise, which happens hundreds of times a day at tables and desks and vehicles, God knows all of those things. He knows the silly random thoughts we think in our heads. But sometimes as we grow as believers, we can categorize certain things as prayer worthy and other things as not.

Big decision, God.

Crisis, God.

Major spiritual issue, definitely talk to God.

But the funny thing that you notice while grocery shopping, apparently that's just something to keep on your own.

But the intimacy that thrives in close relationships, that's made of ordinary sharing. Think about your closest human relationships. They're not composed entirely of really profound conversations or only big pivotal moments. They're also filled with, "Look at this," and, "Guess what happened today?" And, "That reminded me of you." And, "Oh, I gotta tell you about this thing." You don't need an important reason to talk with the person you love. You just talk with them.

God already inhabits our ordinary lives. And so continual prayer can be far less complicated than some of us have learned it, and that's what we're practicing through every Good God Talks episode, right? We're taking these uncommon conversations, and we're engaging with God. We're asking Him questions, which helps us practice being attentive to listen for what He might be sharing with us.

I invite you to think about something random to share with God, and then we're gonna ask Him a question about it. But as you listen to the response, remember to stay attentive, to weigh if that really sounds like Him or not. And the reason for that is because the enemy loves to mess with us about stuff like this. Anything that will help us draw closer in intimacy with God, he wants to steal it. He wants to destroy it. He wants to accuse us. And especially I found in circumstances like this, the accuser can come in and discredit or disqualify the conversation that we're looking to have with the Lord. "God's not really gonna care about that. Why would God respond to you about something so silly? Why would God care about that random thing? That's not very spiritual."

And so I want you to listen for the response and recognize if the accuser is trying to mess with you about it. And if you hear any of those disqualifiers, ask God again, "God, will you confirm for me? Is that true about you?" Weigh it against what we see in Scripture. "God, if you perceive my thoughts, if you know every word that's gonna be on my tongue before I know it, is it true that you really don't care about what I'm sharing with you?" Don't let the enemy take this moment away from you, even in something that can feel so small.

And so think about something random that you can share with God, and then ask him this question: "God, what do you think?"

I'm excited for what 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!

Connect with Jen on Instagram(opens in new tab)