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“Talk is simple communication, and it doesn’t need to be dressed up.”

A thought by Kyle Idleman, (2015-10-01) from his book, The End of Me: Where Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins (Kindle Locations 1097-1098). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

What Kyle is talking about here is prayer and his whole thought is, “God simply wants us to talk with him. Talk is simple communication, and it doesn’t need to be dressed up.”

Earlier he said, “Jesus saw things differently. He said that when we talk to God, we simply need to be who we are— to be authentic and to talk to him as we would talk to someone we love.”

But that can be so difficult for us.  Kyle says, “Many of us have struck spiritual poses in our prayers. We have a hard time being ourselves. Praying before others, we have a tendency to talk more to the people in the room than to God. Even in private prayer, sincerity doesn’t come easily. We talk to God as if he requires formal language, as we would talk to some governmental authority we didn’t know well. Or we speak in a kind of fake biblical language we’ve cobbled together from the Scriptures or other embellished prayers we’ve heard. Prayer becomes a performance, and we have to work at it.”

And that is so true.  But as Kyle says, “We should talk to him as we’d talk to a best friend— simply being ourselves, being totally honest without worrying how it might sound.”

God wants us to be authentic, to be real, to be pure and we will be blessed if we are.  Jesus said in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

He wants us to be real, especially when we come to him.  He knows who we really are.  So let’s not blow it by trying to fake it.


So is it real of fake?

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