Is Being Honest with God Safe? Here’s the Bible Truth

Inside: Dig into a short but powerful Psalm to discover the best approach to being honest with God about everything you’re feeling and experiencing…even your most cringe-worthy feelings about Him.

I spent literal years of my life lying to God.

I lied to Him about all sorts of things, but mostly I lied about my true feelings toward Him.

Not the pretty feelings like love and awe. Not the kind of icky feelings either, like hurt and doubt.

I was being honest with God about those easy, expected feelings.

But I straight-up lied to Him for years about my messy feelings—like my deep anger, frustration, and disappointment with Him.

Through years of prayers and praise, I held those feelings in. And for all of those years, I wasn’t being honest with God.

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First, Know This

Looking back now, I don’t judge myself for having those messy feelings about God. And you shouldn’t judge yourself either.

After all, where has God been while you’ve been crying out to Him? Where is He when you’re throwing yourself on the altar in despair and desperation, begging Him to rescue you? Why is God silent when you’re trying to tune in to Him for answers?

And where has He been while you’ve been wondering if your problems are important to God? Why hasn’t He shown up to help you deal with it all? Why has He left you on your own to battle doubts about whether you’re special to God?

And you know what else? Where the heck has He been all these years while you’ve been struggling to figure out how to know your God-given purpose?

Darn right, you’re seething with anger. Heck yes, your frustration is about to boil over. You’re doggone right, you’re about to crumble under the weight of your crushing disappointment in Him.

And you know what? It’s all OK with God.

But only if you deal with it.

The Truth about Being Honest with God

First, you need to know something important.

All of your hidden emotions about God are natural. They’re part of what makes you human.

God understands the range of human emotions, from mountain-top joy to bottom-of-the-abyss despair. From all-encompassing love to abject disappointment.

He sees and understands your messier feelings towards Him. And you can be honest with God about it all.

There’s a lie waiting to trip you up though. This same lie kept me from being honest with God for all those years.

This lie says you’re a bad person for having messy feelings towards God. It makes you scared God will strike you dead if you dare to be honest with Him about your true feelings.

It’s a lie. You’re not a bad person for feeling this way. And God won’t strike you dead for talking it through with Him.

You can take this to the bank because King David—the man after God’s own heart—wrestled with these same feelings.

And God didn’t punish him for it.

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What the Bible Says about Being Honest with God

Let’s dig a little into a Psalm of David to see what being honest with God looks like.

O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand?
Psalm 13:1-2 (NLT)

You can almost see David’s frustration bleeding from the pages of your Bible. You can almost feel his crushing disappointment at God’s silence and what seems like His inattention to what David is going through.

His heavy disappointment torments him every day and breaks his heart.

Kinda like yours may be doing to you.

But David doesn’t stop there. He goes on.

Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die. Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!” Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.
Psalm 13:3-4 (NLT)

David turns up the heat on his desperation and anger. Can’t you almost see him stamping his foot in frustration?

All he wants is for the people who are against him to not win. He wants God to make it so they won’t have the chance to dance on his shattered pride and gloat over his failure.

All David wants is his joy back.

Kinda like you.

But Beware of This Gotcha

David doesn’t just vent his spleen being honest with God. Once he expresses his messy feelings towards God, he changes direction.

But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me.
Psalm 13:5-6 (NLT)

Do you see what David does there? He doesn’t stay caught up in his hurt and anger towards God. He doesn’t let his feelings fester and harden into bitterness.

This was the mistake I made all the years I wasn’t being honest with God about my feelings. I didn’t express them, but they were still there. And because I didn’t deal with them, they festered and grew a root of bitterness.

But David’s prayer shows you how to avoid getting stuck in your messy feelings when you’re being honest with God. The key is to:

Pour it all out directly to God.
Then remind yourself of why your anger, frustration, and disappointment are misplaced.

This isn’t easy. But if David did it, so can you.

He did it by trusting God’s love more than he trusted his own fickle feelings.

3 Important Truths to Know About Being Honest with God

Being honest with God about your messy feelings is fine. He won’t be hurt or get mad when you pour them out. He also won’t punish you for it.

We’re talking about our God of the universe. He doesn’t throw a tantrum when somebody doesn’t like Him or when He thinks they’ve misbehaved. If you want proof, the Book of Judges is a testament to God’s divine patience with His rebellious children.

But you do need to remember 4 critical truths when you’re being honest with God.

1. When you’re trying to hide or deny your feelings, remember who you’re dealing with.

He’s God, and He already knows every single thing there is to know.

2. Lying to God by omission is still lying to God.

Even though He already knows how you feel, He cares about you being honest and open with Him.

“Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected?”
Genesis 4:6 (NLT)

3. God is fine with you feeling all the feels, but He’s not OK with you letting them seethe and fester into bitterness.

If you allow this, sin will get you, guaranteed.

You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”
Genesis 4:7 (NLT)

Don’t dismiss this warning as overly dramatic. Instead, remember the next part of the story where Cain ignored God’s advice, plotted to murder Abel, and then carried out his plan.

You may not murder someone. But when you separate yourself from God by not being honest with Him and allow bitterness to take root in you, you leave a door wide open for sin to stroll right on in.

What to Expect When You Start Being Honest with God

I spent years lying to God and myself because I feared the consequence of being honest with God.

But here’s the thing I didn’t realize at the time. Healthy relationships are built on open communication. This means you can’t have a close relationship with God if you’re not being honest with Him.

These days, I don’t hide anything from God. What would be the point except to drive a wedge between Him and me?

You don’t have to either. When you pray, use David’s Psalm 13 formula for being honest with God and see how much closer you feel to Him.

On the other hand, you should know one thing. Everything won’t suddenly be sunshine and roses in your life when you start being honest with God.

Don’t expect Him to clap His hands in delight over your honesty and magic up immediate solutions to all your problems.

In fact, God may respond to your honesty by correcting you, by dropping soul-shattering, spirit-building truth on you, or by sitting with you in silence.

Whatever His response, you can bank on moving closer to where David was in his relationship with God. You’ll start learning to trust God more than you trust your fickle feelings.

So do yourself a favor and start being honest with God. Your relationship with Him—and yourself—will be all the better for it.

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