One thing I've leanred is how important it is to be completely open with God. To talk to Him as if He knows nothing about you (but also remembering that He knows you better than you know yourself).
For me personally, I enjoy listening to people as if I don't already know a lot about them. When they tell me a story they've already told me five times before, I don't interrupt them and say "Yeah I know, you told me this before..."; I just sit there and listen as if I've never heard it before. I listen because I know they wouldn't be repeating the same thing over and over again if it didn't have some kind of importance or significance to them.
I find it interesting that people have something in them that allows them to enjoy things they already know the outcome of. Movies for example... most people can watch the same movie several times and still find interest in it each time as if they havd never seen it before. For me personally, I can watch the same episode of Three's Company over and over again and STILL laugh the same amount every time as if I had never seen that episode before. Why are we like this? Why do we have never-ending interest in things? In people? In life?
I believe it comes from the fact that we were in created in God's image. I believe that God has that never-ending interest in our lives- even though He knows the outcome. He can watch us make the same mistakes over and over again, hear us cry about the same things and pray the same prayers, yet still find extreme interest in us... How? Why? Because of something we tend to "know" but don't fully understand... His never-ending LOVE for us.
Sometimes I wonder what God thinks of us when we hold back from sharing things with Him just because we tell ourselves "Oh, God already knows...".
If I were to be talking to someone I know really well and they always said "We've already talked about this before, let's talk about something else..." every time we met up, our relationship would get pretty boring. The fact is: close relationships have a lot of repetition. That happens when you're open with someone. You end up telling them things that they already know. So why do we put a restriction on how open we are with God? I'll be honest and say that there are many times I will tell God "God, my heart is hurting..." hesitantly; as if I'm imagining God sitting on a throne saying "Yeah, yeah, I know...". Yeah, He DOES know. But He's like a lot of relationships we have... He still wants to hear us. Relationships come from God after all! We love, we care, we listen, we laugh, we forgive... all because we were created by the God who does those same things!
About a week ago I was sitting on my bed right before I was about to go to sleep. My heart was heavy but I wasn't sure what to say. All of a sudden I started telling God about this dream I had the night before. I started going into detail about it as if God didn't already know about the dream. For a second I stopped and said, "Why am I telling you this? Of course you already know all about my dream...". But then I had this peace that kinda told me "Just keep going... I want to hear.", so I kept going into detail about my dream. The more I got into explaining it, God just started revealing things to me that I didn't understand before. It felt like such an overwhelming sense of peace that God was speaking to me as I was sharing something that He already knew. The more I shared what was on my heart, the more peace God gave me. By the time I had gone to sleep, I had a better understanding of things... just by telling Him about my ridiculous detailed dream that He already knew about.
I say all this to get down to this point... God wants to hear everything about us. He doesn't put a number on how many times we're allowed to share something with Him. He doesn't sit there and think "If she tells me this story one more time, I'm closing my ears to this woman..."... NO. He LISTENS to us with interest. He wants to hear what's on our heart even though He already knows.
With all that said though, He asks that we share the same interest in Him. We can ask something of Him and He will respond... but if He asks something of us... will WE respond? Do we desire to please God like He pleases us? He desires our hearts COMPLETELY but do we desire HIS???
I say this to encourage people to be open with God and to serve God. Tell Him everything... EVERYTHING. Don't hold back. Don't let the enemy fool you into thinking a one-way relationship is okay because you're content... but make it work both ways! Share your heart and let Him share His! Serve Him! Love Him! Submit to Him! He IS your Father after all... : )
"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."
~Jeremiah 33:3
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
-Philippians 4:6-7
"but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love frome me!"
~Psalm 66:19-20
