This was from a recent Renovare newsletter:

Feeling overwhelmed, exasperated, enraged?

Find a pillow or a legal pad and let loose a string of naked honesties that God already knows but you need to release to God.

Real repentance begins with getting real. Coming to love our enemies means first recognizing that we hate them. Giving vengeance to God means first owning we want it for ourselves.

“There’s a crack in everything,” Leonard Cohen sings, “that’s how the light gets in.” Honest prayer is a crowbar to pry open the soul’s cracks wide enough for the light to get in. 

Honesty also paves the way for true praise. So many Psalms put this on stark display—they show us how to tell it like it is and worship even in the dark.

We need honest prayers. Emotion let loose in prayer is not out of the ordinary. In these times, if you feel you can’t really unleash in prayer what you think you need to, pray the Psalms. Note the ones that express anger or frustration and put them on a list. It will make it easier for when you need to pray deeply honest and frustrating prayers the next time.

Don’t have time to list the Psalms? Or, you need that list now? Start with these Psalms:

5, 7,. 9, 10, 13, 16, 21, 23, 28, 31, 35, 36, 40, 41, 44, 52, 54, 55, 58, 59, 68, 69, 70, 71, 137

We need our honest feelings on the table and then the Spirit will direct what is next for us. And we need to plunge into prayer with all our emotions. Don’t be afraid.

May we pray more honest prayers and let the Spirit do a deep work in us!