Episode #342 Emotional Honesty with God – How to Bring Your Feelings to God

Hey friend, it's Jen. I want you to picture yourself driving in to meet God for coffee right now, like you would with one of your friends. You're leaving whatever you've been doing right before this moment, driving over. You're pulling up to your favorite coffee shop, and you're sliding in to the chair across the table from Jesus. And as most of us experience with our real life friends and loved ones, Jesus looks back at you and is like, “Hey, good to see you. How are you doing?” My question for you is: how would you answer that question right now, in this moment?

How are you doing?

How are you feeling?

Are you tired or worried?

Are you angry or sad?

Are you lamenting or grieving or celebrating something?

How are you doing?

I'm bringing this up here because we're starting a new series here on Good God Talks, talking about our emotions with God. This is something that I think a lot of us don't learn how to do. But in relationship with someone, including relationship with the Lord, we get to bring our whole selves. We get to come and be honest about where we are and what we're going through, and God is the safest relationship that we have. But that's not always how we experience him. Not every friend, definitely not every acquaintance, is a safe space for you to just bear your heart. But God is more than an acquaintance and he is safer than even our closest friend or loved one.

In Psalm 62:8, it says,

“Trust in him at all times, O people;

Pour out your heart before him;

God is a refuge for us. Selah.” (Psalm 62:8 ESV)

The way that I grew up thinking about God, I didn't really understand that he was open to hearing about my emotions. I kind of viewed my relationship with God as something that happened after I'd handle my feelings. Or at the very least, separate from my emotions. I thought God was predominantly interested in my intellect, my understanding, and in my actions, my obedience to him and my service. I didn't realize that he invited me to bring all of me to him in this way.

And so I've found that as we grow in relationship with God, as we go about daily life, wanting to do it with him, one of the practical practices that I have in my own walk is inviting God into how I'm feeling. Sharing with him what's going on in my day. Not that he doesn't know because he does, but because there's something different that happens in our connection, in my response to him, in the sense of intimacy that I have with the Lord, when I'm open and honest with him. Not trying to manage or clean up how I'm feeling away from him, but bringing all of it, the good and the bad, the exciting and the hard, and inviting God into the moment with me to see what else he would share.

No matter what you're going through today, that can be a shared experience with God. And we can use this series, including this episode and this moment right here and right now to reframe how we view how we're doing and how we're feeling as an opportunity for relational connection with God. Not something that pulls us away or that we resist revealing to him.

And so here's a question that I invite you to take to the Lord:

God, what am I feeling right now that you want to remind me that I can bring to you?

And then keep talking with God based on what he shares with you. I'm excited to continue exploring this with you and the intimacy that God will bring into our walks with him as we continue these conversations with him.

 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