Vulnerability: Toward Intimacy with God

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.  

Scripture is clear that God wants us to come to Him.  This fact is nothing short of miraculous in itself.  But even more wonderful is how He wants us to come...with confidence.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.


Often, when I approach the throne of grace, I am clothed in doubt.  Doubt about whether God hears, about whether He will answer, about whether I even ought to be asking in the first place.  But we have been given the ultimate authority to enter in, to ask, and to receive when we come in the name of Jesus.  Relying on His worth and His name, we can approach with confidence.

Some people twist these verses and others to say that God is ultimately interested in our success or our happiness--if we pray for something, we'll get it.  That's not what we're saying here.  But what does interest God--an amazing thought--is our hearts.  He is interested in our drawing near, in our seeking from Him, in our asking.  He is interested in intimate relationship with us.  He "takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love!"  

Often the doubt comes when I analyze what I'm seeking, whether it's a great teacher for my children, a job for someone I love, sales commission on our next paycheck, or something as simple as affordable fall clothes for the kids.  I wonder whether what I'm asking is best.  I question my motives in asking.  I wonder whether it is godly to be asking for whatever I'm seeking.  So I filter my prayers through the lens of what I deem appropriate.  I pretty it up.  I substitute what my heart really wants or needs for what I think is a more godly request.  I feel the need to quickly say "if it's Your will" right after I ask.  I try to justify my needs.  And sometimes, I don't feel like they are holy enough to bring to God at all.

So, I pray incomplete prayers, avoiding vulnerability.  I talk about my heart's desires to other people instead.  I meditate on those desires.  I search for the best price on them, or talk to someone who I think can help me obtain them.  But I don't pray about them.  Because I'm just not sure if they're godly requests. 

But when I do this, I am relying on my own provision.  I am not trusting God to answer my prayers.  I am not trusting Him to provide the desires of my heart.  And even more importantly, I'm not even sharing my heart with Him.

Intimate relationships are built on trust and over time.  One person knows he or she can count on the other. They know each other's hearts.  They can be vulnerable.  They are safe talking about their true desires with each other.  And isn't this true with God?  Certainly He "knows what you need before you ask him."  And certainly He doesn't always provide as we envision.  And yet we are instructed that "in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" because it is in the asking that we develop that relationship, that intimacy.  It is in the revelation of our hearts before Him that we learn how perfectly He loves us.  It is in prayer that we offer up our requests to God and sit back and watch how He works.

He tells us,

Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

And God doesn't qualify this statement.  He doesn't tell us to pretty up our desires before we bring them.  He tells us to draw near.  He talks about the desires of our hearts--as if they are something He really cares about.

I don't believe it is faithful of me to ask only for the things I believe God is going to give anyway.  It's not holy for me to filter my prayers, making sure to ask only for the "good" requests.  It robs me of intimacy with God.

I can trust Him with my heart.  I can be vulnerable, exposing my truest, deepest desires to Him.  And I can rest in knowing He cares for me.  He wants me to bring those desires to Him--not strive after them with my own might and hope for the best.  And when I bring them to Him, I can trust that He hears them, that He cares for me!  Oh, how I struggle to believe that He would really love me in this way.  But the Scriptures resound with this beautiful, inexplicable truth.