Honesty with God in Prayer

In today's first reading, Exodus 32: 7-14, the Lord's wrath blares up against his people because they turned against the one true God by "making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it, sacrificing to it...The Lord said to Moses, 'I see how stiff-necked this people is. Let me alone, then, that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them. Then  I will make of you a great nation.' But Moses implored the Lord, his God, saying, 'Why, O Lord, should your wrath blaze up against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with so strong a hand? .....Let your blazing wrath die down;.... So the Lord relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people."

Moses does not mince words with God. He is being brutally honest! "Lord, why would you do such a thing as kill the Israelites. Look at how you freed the people from slavery in Egypt and You did so with such great power and with a strong arm. Come on! Your not going to now use your almighty power to consume them, are You? And God relents!

Think of how you and your best friend communicate with one another. You are not afraid to share exactly what is on your mind. and sometimes what you are thinking is not very pretty. You do not coat your words in sugar when you are intensely mad about something your friend is about to do that is crazy. Moses spoke the way he did with God because God and he were the best of friends. God was madly in love with Moses and Moses with God! Being the best of friends, Moses tells God exactly what is on his mind and he does not sugar coat his words.

 Is God your best friend? Are you as honest with God as Moses was? If not, why not? I had to answer that question for myself!  I realized that I had been keeping God at a distance because of my belief that God was an angry God, a punishing God, a God who kept a black list of my sinfulness. when I was naughty as a child I was told that God was watching me and that he was keeping track of my naughtiness. No way could I let myself get close to this kind of God!  One day when, in prayer, I expressed intense anger toward God and cowered for fear of how God would respond to me, I heard Him say to me in prayer: It is not I who has a problem with your anger; you do! Over the years, I have learned that God is a caring, loving, merciful God. I have developed a close relationship with God and am not afraid to be honest with Him in good times and "bad" times, when angry or sad or hurt or jealous or happy or joyful or grateful or delighted!  I can now share all my feelings and thoughts with the Lord and the Lord lovingly responds!

How about you? If you are unable to do this, do you need to look at how you perceive God? Is your perception of God accurate or do you need to change your perception?