In Praying I Can Bring More of Me to God

Wyandotte, Michigan

The best spiritual place to be with God is in full transparency. God knows what's in me anyway, so why not bare it all?

Why reveal anything at all if God already knows me fully, inside and out? The answer is: the God-thing is about a relationship, not a ritual. God loves me, and wants me to trust His love. Relationship requires my response.



Good parents know a lot about their child. The child does not know this. If the child steals something, the most fruitful spiritual response will be for the child to come forth on their own rather than being exposed by their parents. Even if the parents already know. The parents want the child to trust them. 

In a similar way God desires me to bring my entire self before Him. This is how I learn to trust that God will always be truthful and loving towards me, and has His best interests in mind when it comes to me.

When it comes to other people, voluntary vulnerability is my response. I cannot be fully transparent before most people, for they are not God. I cannot trust their response to me will be loving and truthful. There are only a handful of people I can be entirely open before. 

I can be open before my wife Linda. Certain qualities in her allow me to trust her with my deepest self.

• She loves me
• She never condemns me
• She's not out to "get me"
• She never tries to control me
• She is forgiving (because she, like me, has been forgiven much)
• She speaks truthfully to me (no game-playing or manipulating)
• She champions my spiritual being - she wants Christ to be more deeply formed in me

I discovered this in her over 42 years ago. If she has changed it's that she's gotten better at this.

But my wife is not God. God is safer and better than either of us. As I cry out to God for more of Him this will mean laying more of me before Him.