Say what????

Do you ever complain to God?  I do!  In fact, I find myself ranging from complaint to praise, from disappointment to celebration.  The good news is that God doesn't judge me for this honest exchange of my emotions - in fact, he encourages me!  David was another one who made this frequent honest exchange of emotions ranging from up to down, "all in" to "holding back a little".  Many of the psalms within the Book of Psalms actually are a record of David's "honest exchanges" between God and David.  In turn, these exchanges are placed in the middle of our Bible as a means of helping us connect with God on some level of "honest" exchange.  If we see and hear others engaging in this honest exchange of emotion, we are more likely to "try our hand" at being just as forthright with God, as well.  

The godly will rejoice in the Lord and find shelter in him.  And those who do what is right will praise him.  (Psalm 64:10 NLT)

In the midst of his enemy's threats, he turns to God and he does it in pretty significant openness.  He paints the picture of how he sees his enemies working - things like hurtful words; finding innocence and pointing it out in almost mocking fashion; and hours of secret planning with plots designed to trip him up.  Trust me, God already knows all these details, but there is something cathartic in his open exchange with God.  

Here's where I find God being most gracious in my own life - in my exchange of the "obvious", he patiently awaits my discourse to come to an end.  In "getting it out before God", I find he then can take care of whatever it is I really need done in my life.  Yet, in this exchange, God gently brings me to the place of realizing the "mission" of open exchange - the place where he takes control when I let go of the things I have been holding onto.

In six short verses, David gets to the point.  In just three short verses, God makes his!  Amazing - God gets to the point in half the time we get to ours! Now, doesn't that beat all!  God is infinitely patient with us - allowing us all the time we need to get things out before him - and infinitely gracious to help us see things from his perspective, but not making it so difficult for us to grasp that we don't sit and listen.  

When God gives us his perspective, it comes across in quite the contrast to our own. The enemy which seems to plot evil with his words - undone in an instant with the powerful word of God - allowing their own malicious words to turn against them, bringing THEM harm instead of us.  The word he uses not only becomes their undoing, but it becomes the evidence of his watchful care.

Then in summary of his graciousness toward us, we find ourselves turning from words of complaint to words of praise - finding shelter in his words and in his revelation of the true perspective of the situation.  This is where God excels - in giving us as long as we need to "get it all out before him" and then in allowing us to gain his perspective of the circumstances - culminating in us having a fresh revelation of his grace.  All this matter of complaint actually becomes a place where we meet with God to gain his perspective and see even more of his grace bestowed on our behalf.  Now, that is truly awesome! Just sayin!