Who Can You Trust with Your Real Struggles?

Most folks don’t like to talk about their real situation–the discouragement, the worry, the disappointment, the financial strain, the loneliness, the new physical ailment.

How are you?

Fine.

Wouldn’t want to let loose with the full story and burn the other person’s eyebrows off. 

Who would just come out and say that you’re worried about your kids’ jobs? Not sure how long until you can’t meet budget. Wondering if you should go to the doctor for that new pain. Afraid your nation is circling the drain. Feeling like a failure at work. Tired of waiting on that prayer to be answered that you’ve been praying for 15 years. Wondering if you’re going the right direction with my life.  

Other than that?

Fine.

Thanks for asking.

But David sings it like it is, with his surprisingly honest lyric: I am poor and needy, come quickly to me, O God.

Poor and needy means depressed in mind or circumstances. Afflicted. Humble. Wretched. Weak. In want. Chiefly poor. 

Enough with the niceties. When David talks to God, he lifts up his soul in its true condition. How am I really? Struggling with the incoming challenges that I can’t control. I need help, and I need it right now.

Out with it. Pray for real. 

You know the great thing about laying all your needs out before God –unedited? He doesn’t get overwhelmed. He doesn’t have his own list of anxieties to deal with. And he gets all of the glory when he steps in and helps you at a heroic level in a timely way, so it’s a win-win. You never have to go home and think, Oh man, I shouldn’t have dumped all of that on him. Better than a therapist (no offense, Matt), he doesn’t limit you to a 50-minute session, and he has every available resource and wisdom to be the solution to every problem. No fee. God is the one person who has shoulders broad enough for your true condition.