{"id":29,"date":"2009-07-21T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-21T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/07\/bare-naked-prayer.html"},"modified":"2009-07-21T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-21T05:00:00","slug":"bare-naked-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/07\/bare-naked-prayer.html","title":{"rendered":"Bare Naked Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m feeling vulnerable in my relationship with God today. I began by asking him for wisdom about our family finances, which – with two kids in college and a couple boys eating us out of house and home – are looking a bit depleted. So I’m praying for wisdom and for blessing. I’m asking God to provide. Well and good. He promises to do just that. <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

But the dangerous thing is, as I ask for answers, God starts digging deeper into my soul, uprooting underlying issues like my fear of failure and my fear that I can’t provide for my family. Once I dare to get honest in prayer, God ups the ante and goes even deeper, to the real issues. <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

Prayer is dangerous. I start in and God ends up stripping me down to basics. That’s happening to me right now. Here’s an excerpt from my book, “Six Prayers God Always Answers”<\/a> that talks about the vulnerable dangers of prayer.  <\/span> <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

Like sexual intimacy, sometimes prayer means we get naked. We reveal parts of ourselves that no one else has ever seen. The only reason we can do this is not that the lights are turned off, but because there is trust. <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The best abstinence program for a teenage girl is the fear of what her boyfriend will tell his friends about what he saw and what they did. But couples celebrating silver or golden anniversaries don’t worry for a minute that their partner will share intimate details of their sex life because there is trust that comes from commitment and time spent together.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

God doesn’t ask us to undress in front of him and then, in the middle of the night, get up and share the details with his buddies–he doesn’t abandon us even when we’ve shown him everything. Prayer, like comfortable conversation, is a safe place to be vulnerable. And whether or not we get enough A and C before our T or S–God will still be there in the morning. <\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

God is safe, but prayer is dangerous to our “feeling” of safety. God will lay us bare as we lay bare our soul. It’s really the only way to living up to our destiny. Getting honest with God culminates with God being honest with us about ourselves and about his high calling for our eternal destiny. <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m feeling vulnerable in my relationship with God today. I began by asking him for wisdom about our family finances, which – with two kids in college and a couple boys eating us out of house and home – are looking a bit depleted. So I’m praying for wisdom and for blessing. I’m asking God…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7,4,8,3,5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-daily-prayer","category-god","category-life","category-prayer","category-prayer-plain-and-simple","category-praying"],"yoast_head":"\nBare Naked Prayer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/07\/bare-naked-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bare Naked Prayer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’m feeling vulnerable in my relationship with God today. 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He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the author of \"Six Prayers God Always Answers: Results May Vary,\" and \"Nine Ways God Always Speaks: Only Available in Certain States,\" both co-written with Jennifer Schuchmann. His third book is \"The Karma of Jesus.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mark is a native of Santa Cruz, California. He has studied at Azusa Pacific University, The Academy of Performing Arts, Cambridge, Ontario, and Luther Seminary. He holds a Ph.D. from Regent University. Mark and his wife Jill have four children. 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