Step Three in Crisis: Pour Your Heart Out to God
By Rick Warren
“I poured out my heart, baring my soul to God” (Daniel 9:3a The Message).
Over the last few devotionals, we’ve been looking at how Daniel prayed during a time of crisis in his life and the life of Israel. His pattern shows us how we can pray in a way that God answers us.
So far we’ve learned that we must:
● Let God speak to us before we speak to him.
● Focus our attention on God and seek him.
Then, we must express our desires with passion.
Too many of our prayers are simply cut-and-dried. We speak without really thinking about what we’re saying. We have the words memorized. There’s no passion or authenticity.
The truth is, God cares more about the passionate sincerity of your prayers than the words you use. The right words and the wrong emotions won’t work with your spouse. It won’t work with God either.
Human beings are made in the image of God. He shows emotions. He gets angry. He gets sad. He gets happy.
God doesn’t just love you. God loves you passionately — emotionally.
Daniel described his passionate prayer in Daniel 9:3a: “I prayed earnestly to the Lord God, pleading with him” (GNT).
The word “pleading” in Hebrew means to “ask with emotions.” It’s a serious seeking. It’s searching with all your heart. It’s begging.
That’s a prayer God will listen to and answer.
I love this paraphrase of Daniel 9:3a: “I poured out my heart, baring my soul to God” (The Message).
Perhaps you need to pray like that for your family. You need to pour your heart out and bare your soul to God on their behalf. Maybe you need to do that about your marriage or your finances.
All of us need to do that about the world around us. It should break our hearts when we see the devastation of war, famine, and evil in our world. We shouldn’t gossip about it. We shouldn’t tweet about it.
We need to pour our hearts out to God about it.
PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >>
Talk It Over
When you pray, what stirs your deepest passion?
Why do we resort to rote, rehearsed prayers so often?
How can you bring more passion to your prayers?
For more Daily Hope with Rick Warren, please visit pastorrick.com!
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This devotional © 2017 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
You can listen to Rick Warren on OnePlace.com.
