I’ve been fighting a battle for a while. And this past week has been hitting me hard with internal spiritual warfare. I listened to a speech tonight, and the speaker kept going back to the realness of God and how that reflects in our prayer life. He said the word “real” so many times that I almost started counting. Now this speech lasted a little over an hour. And I can’t even begin to recap the details. But as many times as he said that word, it stuck with me. So, being the nerd that I am, I came home and looked up “real” in the dictionary. The first definition applies. “Actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact” Yeah. Ok. Whew. I’m real. Prayer is real. I mean, it exists as a thing, right? But as I went down the list. The jabs just started hurting worse and worse.

Real – Adjective – Actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact. Not imitation or artificial. Genuine. Proper. Complete.

And now, the synonyms: Authentic. Bona Fide. Sincere. True. Unfeigned. Heartfelt. Unaffected. Earnest. Substantial. Honest. Truthful. Absolute. Perfect.

Or how about the definition used in Optics: “Of a kind in which the light that forms it actually passes through it”.

Now, who wants to guess who THAT describes!?! If anyone here is real. It’s the Lord our God. There is not one of those definitions that doesn’t describe Him perfectly.

And the thing is… God is real. So very real. I know this. There has been more than one occasion where He has shown Himself to me and has shown His love for me. Not only that… but after all of these years and all of these battles, He has NEVER given up on me.

Now, let’s take it further and play with the Antonyms:

Genuine → Insincere

Proper → Inappropriate

Complete → Incomplete

Authentic → Fake

Sincere → Insincere

True → False

Unfeigned → Pretended

Earnest →  Apathetic, Half-Hearted

Substantial →  Worthless

Honest → Insincere, Biased

Truthful → Deceptive

Absolute → Partial

Perfect → Faulty

Here, we see a list of all the ways I daily fall short. Either in my thoughts, my words or my actions. It absolutely blows my mind that there is a true, earnest, authentic, bona fide, unfeigned, absolute and perfect God that loves me anyways.

Now, to reflect that in my prayer life.