Praying Without Pretending Come to God just as you are. Pray without pretending. Tell the Lord exactly how you feel. Tell him your questions. Tell him your pain and fear, your grief and confusion. Come to God just as you are, not as you think you ought to be. God knows your heart, so why try to fool him? Why pretend you don’t have any questions, when you are full of questions? Why pretend you’re happy, when you can’t keep back the tears? Don’t pretend. Pray! Pour out your heart. Then beg for God’s help. Scream for it, if necessary. Here’s a model prayer found in Psalm 13. How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me. Notice how this prayer combines the desperate scream, “How long, O Lord?” with a strong faith in God’s love and salvation. The Bible shows that it’s possible to have faith in a mighty God who blesses and heals and saves, and still struggle with pain and suffering. You believe that the Lord is going to make all things well, whether by restoring you in this life, or in the life to come—you believe that with all your heart, and yet you find yourself in such agony that you wonder how much more you can take. You don’t doubt the final salvation; you’re just distressed that it is so long in coming. At such a time, the cry “How long?” is a scream of faith. It expresses trust in the God who delivers his people and at the same time expresses sorrow that the deliverance hasn’t yet come. #Prayer Shalom!