When was the last time you hung out with a hooker?
Convicting, isn’t it? Disturbing, isn’t it?
Yes it is.
4. “God listens to my prayers.”
Prayer is amazing. And we do trust that God listens to our prayers.
But, as we’ve said before in this space, prayer is not a button to be pushed nearly as much as it is a relationship to be pursued.
The smugness and certainty with which many Christians talk about prayer must strike people as weird, weird, weird.
The biblical portrait of prayer is as much about broken people embracing the mystery and majesty of a forgiving God as much as it is about anything.
When prayer becomes a predictable formula that manipulates or controls God, you can be pretty sure you’re no longer praying.
5. “Sure I have a few issues, but that’s between me and God.”
And if you keep it between you and God, people will never be able to relate to you.
Perfect on the outside and flawed on the inside—that’s the accusation Jesus levied against the Pharisees.
When people on the outside look at pretend-to-be-perfect Christians, it does three things:
It alienates them.
It makes them think you’re fake…because even they know we’re all broken.
It suggests God can’t help them.
The antidotes? Transparency. Vulnerability. Honesty.
