8th October 2025

Being honest with God

We enjoyed a fascinating Sunday morning with Andy Caldwell, the new team leader of Webnet, and his wife Jo. He was warm, friendly and very open before, during and after the service that he and Sam led together.

One idea that came up during his thought-provoking sermon on “lamentation” was that we must be honest with God.

My first thought when I heard that was “how could I lie to God?” Surely God knows my thoughts as I have them, or even before I have them! (Past, present, future cannot mean the same to God as they do to us.) Then the real implication of what he was saying came to me: if I am going to be honest with God then I must first be honest with myself. I cannot possibly tell myself one thing and hope that I can somehow say something different in my prayers. That would be nonsense.

Being honest with God, then, means knowing myself properly, seeing myself for what I am. If I can do that then I can properly talk to God whether it’s a prayer of lament, a hymn of gratitude or just a passing thought.

Perhaps this process of finding self-knowledge before God is an important way that God speaks to us.

Nick Parsons