God cares where you’re at and invites you to pour your heart out before him. And yet we hesitate… surely God won’t want to hear what’s really going on inside us?

In today’s message, we turn to Genesis 3 and hear the Lord ask us all ‘where are you?’.

He is our Glorious Friend, our Wonderful Counsellor.

This week our service is lead by Andrew Rees, Rachel and Martin Hayes, Kelly Martin, Lewis Roderick and Hannah and Jon Cooper.

For those of you who’ve are interested about the quotes from the message, here they are with links to where they're from in context. There are also resources that may serve you if you'd like to think more about emotional spirituality and communion with God.

“This is really quite a shocking thing for God to invite and even command us to do. Why would God be willing, much less eager, to hear the inner distresses and delights of people who from birth have rebelled against him? Why would God want hearts poured out into his hands when those hearts are divided, full of treasures that compete with single-minded devotion to him? Why would God choose to care about or listen to the weeping or pleading or crowing of a sinful creature who caused his beloved Son to go through physical and emotional anguish we could never fathom? Would you offer your shoulder to cry on to someone who killed your child?”

Alastair Groves, Untangling Emotions

“When Jesus says, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matt. 26: 38), what does he do? He doesn’t pull out an extra bottle of wine from the Last Supper to take the edge off. He doesn’t stand apart from his emotions to get some distance and seek to return to the calmness of his wise mind. He doesn’t even start reciting his favourite Bible verses and preach truth to himself so he can stay focused on doing the next task for God. Instead… he falls on his knees and pours out his heart to his Father.”

Alastair Groves, Untangling Emotions

“God speaks to us through a knot in the stomach, muscle tension, trembling and shaking, the release of adrenaline into our bloodstream, headaches, and suddenly elevated heart rate. God may be screaming at us through our physical body.”

Peter Scazzero, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

Other Resources:

Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God by Tim Keller