Several months back, the walls were closing in on me. I had been laid off from Texas Farm Bureau, I was two months without employment, and things in my personal life had gone from bad to worse.

At that moment, a former church member texted me, “People who have no secrets from each other never want for subjects of conversation.”

He went on to explain that his quote was from a 16th-century Bible teacher who used the quote to teach open and honest prayers to God.

He went on to say, “Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and pains to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles that He may comfort you, your joys that He may sober them. Tell Him your longings that He may purify them.

“People who have no secrets from each other never want for subjects of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back. They talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration, they say what they think.

“Blessed are they who attain such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God.” (Francois Feneion, 1651-1715)

After receiving that text, I drove out to a local picnic area and lifted my heart up to God, sharing every anxiety of my financial and family situation, my anxieties and fears, my needs and requests.

I had been praying, but I had “Spiritualized” my prayers, couching the words in sanitized language so as to demonstrate acceptance and faith.

But with this prayer, I laid it all out on the table.

“God, you have given me the responsibility to provide for my family, but to do that, I NEED A JOB!”

“God, you have called me to preach your Gospel, but I need you to provide for and enable this ministry!”

“God, I need direction!”

Isn’t it interesting? By the end of the day, I had an interview with a company that would go on to hire me, and transfer me to Austin. After a few months in Austin, I learned that financial services was not God’s calling on my life, and the pursuit of career accomplishments and wealth would never feed my soul.

Again, I prayed, “Lord, please rescue me.”

And now, I sit here in the study at First Baptist Church of Hermleigh, TX, sharing this testimony with you.

Open and honest prayers not only work, and are not only recommended by 16th-century teachers, but they are also Biblical.

Take David’s prayer in Psalm 6, for example. David opens the prayer by begging for God’s mercy, asking God how much longer this season of grief and suffering will continue, and asking to be delivered.

He goes on to discuss how long and how intense his grief is, saying that he makes his bed to swim and waters his couch with his tears.

In Psalm 6, David lays it all out there, before ultimately expressing faith that the LORD will receive his prayer.

David’s prayer is not unlike Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 1, when she prayed out of the bitterness of her heart, asking God not to forget her, and that if she were blessed with a son, she would give him to the Lord and dedicate him to God’s service.

Scripture records multiple times when God heard and answered David’s prayer, and 1 Samuel records how God heard and answered Hannah’s prayer.

When Jesus taught us how to pray during the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6, He told us, “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”

This concept is what separates David and Hannah’s prayers from the ineffectual prayers of many others. People have been taught to use certain phrases and words when praying, and thus they lose the actual substance of the prayers they lift up to God.

What God wants, however, is for us to be open and honest with Him. He wants us to “Let our requests be made known unto Him.” (Philippians 4:6).

He wants us to be real, to truly explore our hearts and give them over to Him, to allow Him to refine our hearts, answer our requests, and transform us through the process.

When this level of prayer becomes our method of operation, we will truly see the Lord move, and our anxieties will be abated as well.

And if you need help, if you have a special prayer request, feel free to send it to me below. I will be glad to lift your request up in prayer.