Devotions based on Trevor Hudson’s book, Discovering our Spiritual Identity

When we pray we need to be honest before God, and not just say what we think God wants to hear. We must come warts and all and not say who we should be or who we could be.  We are to ask for what we really need for this puts us in touch with who we really are and moves us beyond pretense. Then we will find that God encounters us at our deepest need. It is so good when we can acknowledge our feelings, even our angry feelings. If we ignore them a split will appear in our praying and living: a split between our conscious relationship with God and what we are experiencing in our emotional world. “Owning and expressing our feelings to the God who came in the flesh helps us to live fully and maturely.”

When we neglect to do this, it has a draining and depressing effect on us.  Let us be real before God and others and we will find greater intimacy with Him and growth in our self- knowledge.

The author also suggests praying the Psalms as it trains us how to speak to God and to confess our secrets. The Lord’s Prayer also gives us a framework for communicating with Him and draws us into intimacy.