Let us read a verse from 1 Chronicles 29:17, “Since I know, O my God, that You try the heart and delight in uprightness, I, in the integrity of my heart, have willingly offered all these things; so now with joy I have seen Your people, who are present here, make their offerings willingly to You.” Prayer and trusting in God are acts of faith. We have heard about these in the past weeks. When we pray and communicate with God, are we completely honest before Him or do we pray just to get it off our tasks to be done for the day? The verse we read says that God rejoices when He sees integrity. This verse is part of a David’s prayer before he hands over the kingdom to Solomon. David’s prayer is an honest one. David had many failures, but he was called as a man after God’s own heart because he was honest. Psalm 145: 18 says “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth”. David wrote this psalm knowing very well that God was near to all who called upon Him in truth. We meditated a few weeks back about how David responded to Nathan’s correction. Let us examine ourselves – how is our communication with the Lord? Are we completely honest when we pray to God? Am I bringing delight to God by showing integrity? Whatever is our present state, if we are honest before God – it will bring happiness in God’s heart. We know the verse – You shall know the truth and truth shall set you free! Let us be truthful before God in our prayers and not pray vaguely to just finish our daily routines.
In the movie of “Pilgrim’s Progress” , something that blesses us is that the Holy Spirit God coming as a Helper for “Christian” and counseling him. The Christian had fallen into a muddy trap and called out for help. The ‘Helper’ comes and saves Christian and gives him some advice. Before the Helper leaves he says, “I am just a call away for help”. This encouraged me. We also see that the Christian was truthful to God and acknowledged his state. His intention was so clear. He was honest about the mistakes that he made. Some mistakes were out of ignorance and as God gave him light he was transforming each day. He had to leave his family to be true and honest in the presence of God as he traveled to the celestial city. That showed his integrity and truthfulness to God.
There are many examples in the Bible of men who were honest of their condition like Job, David, Samuel, Paul and Jesus Himself. In Job 2:3 we read how God testifies of Job’s integrity before Satan. In the NLT version we read it as, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil. And he has maintained his integrity, even though you urged me to harm him without cause.” In our relationship with God, we need to be completely honest.
In Luke 8 we read of the parable of the sower. In verse 15 we read, “But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.” Notice that receiving the word with an honest and good heart produces good fruit. Many times we notice that we forget what we have heard from God when we go back to our daily routines. Why does this happen? Because we don’t have an honest heart before God. Those who produce good fruit are those who are constantly honest with God; communicating their true state and struggles and asking God for help. For such, the Lord is very near. In Mathew 5:8 we read, “Blessed are the pure in heart and they shall see God”. We should have this purity in heart when we communicate with God. If we are completely honest before God, it shows our complete surrender to Him. If we are honest with God, we will also be able to stay honest to people.
When Jesus came to the earth, he lived as a man and showed us how to live. He lived His life with complete honesty before the Father. Before Jesus went to the cross, in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prays to the Father expressing His heart’s honest condition. He was asking the Father if the cup set before Him could be removed but also that He was willing to do whatever was the will of the Father. We see a completely honest Jesus in that prayer. Jesus is our example! In 1 Peter 5:6 we read, “Therefore humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in the proper time. Casting all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” This is what God wants us to do – humbly come before Him and lay our anxiety upon Him and He will take care of it. We don’t have to pretend, we can honestly bring our struggles and cares to God. He will give us freedom.
We know what happened to Ananias and Sapphira when they were not honest before God. Their dishonesty lead to their death. We read of the incident in Acts 5. In verse 3 and 4 we read, “Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” Ananias was trying to act as if he had bought before God and was being a hypocrite. God is sovereign. He knows everything and everything is naked before Him. He knows when we are not being honest. We are His children and God wants an honest communication with Him. God wants to come to the throne of grace with honesty. In 2 Timothy 2: 22 we read, “Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” God desires that we call upon Him with a pure heart.
God wants us to come to the throne of grace with honesty. He loves us and whatever be our state; He only wants us to be honest before Him. He will take care of our anxieties and cares.
May God bless us all!
