13. For me to be friends with Jesus, I will need to be honest, vulnerable, and genuine.

Do you feel like you need to “clean up” before you spend time with God?

How would being open and honest help create a better relationship between you and Jesus?

Do you think God accepts you when you are honest about your failures and flaws?

Reflect with Jesus about how He would like you to practice being open and honest.

We live in a culture that puts tremendous pressure on people to be and act a certain way. Because of this, we are tempted to pretend to be something that we really aren’t. So, too, with God; we may feel that we need to be something that isn’t true about us, so we pretend. However, healthy relationships cannot exist when someone is pretending. 

For us to have a healthy relationship with God, then, we must be open and honest about who we really are, including our faults and failures. This vulnerability will not be natural for us, especially if we feel like God will be disappointed with us. 

But God knows the truth about us already. And when we admit what God already knows, we experience freedom from shame and guilt. The Psalms contain examples of the psalmists, especially David, expressing honesty and vulnerability. 

David was not afraid to be angry at God, to complain to God about what God wasn’t doing, or even to ask God to do bad things to his enemies. David was comfortable venting at God. He was honest about how he felt about God and didn’t need to pretend that everything was fine. David was also vulnerable with God; He confessed his sin, owned his failures, and revealed his despair, depression, and anxiety. 

David spoke to God in the Psalms from an “unfiltered-heart” with fully honest emotion. David gives us an example of how to function in a genuine friendship relationship with God.