What we do most times is fake it. There is an old expression that some of you will remember. That expression is “don’t fake the funk”. The Urban Dictionary says that to “fake the funk” is to be fake or not to keep it real, to pretend to be in the know; to pretend to be "fly";
In other words we hide how we really feel. Stop “faking the funk” and be real with God. We should let our real emotions show in our conversations with Him. Our relationship with God deepens when we risk being open and honest as we talk with Him. When we become convinced that God is really our friend, we really know how He feels about us, and that we can talk to Him about anything.
Hebrews 4:16 (NKJV) Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Be careful not to cover up your emotions in order to look like a “good Christian.” Without becoming open we are unable to rely fully on God.
It's not always easy though.
It’s easy to talk about expressing joy, but in real life we struggle with sin, injustice, pain, and temptation. These things arouse feelings that aren’t comfortable. It seems riskier to be honest when we feel isolated, guilty, irritated, intimidated, ashamed, angry, inadequate, rejected, or worthless.
You can't control the problems that come into your life but you can control how you respond to them. Giving thanks; cultivates your character, increases your joy, and conquers your problems. Thanking God takes your mind off your problems and while thanking and praising God your attention is on Him. Your problems may not go away when you give thanks, but they stop being such a problem. When you thank and praise God you live from the inside out. What goes on around you no longer controls the condition of the world within you.
While we can thank God in all things we shouldn't take our thanks by acting like we aren't affected by or bothered by our troubles. We are human beings and we have emotions. If we try to hide those emotions we aren't being honest with ourselves and more importantly, we are not being honest with God. We should let our real emotions show in our conversations, or prayer time with Him. Don't worry God can handle it.
Give Thanks But Don't Fake It
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).
Catastrophes like earthquakes, hurricanes, and even terrorist attacks remind us that, indeed, we live in a sin-cursed world. Not only do tragedies like these cause many to lose their lives, they often leave countless others in their wake---roiling in doubt and disbelief. The horrors of human suffering can stain our minds and souls and often obscure our vision of the God who is there. How are we supposed to respond?
Closer to home, we experience the curse of sin in personal ways through losses or disappointments that grieve the heart. We may wonder in all honesty at such times what verses like Romans 8:28 mean. Does Christ call His followers to simply put on a plastic smile and somehow grin and bear it?
Hardly.
Francis Schaeffer offers a helpful explanation to this dilemma in the first chapter of his classic book, True Spirituality. In fact, he says that a proper grasp of Romans 8:28 is crucial to understanding the world.
First of all, he takes care to point out that the Bible's view of life in the world is clear-eyed and realistic: At the Fall of man, everything became abnormal. The whole world is not what God made it to be. Therefore, Scripture verses like Romans 8:28 cannot be calling us to think…
"…that in some magical way everything is really fine when it isn't. Rather, we are to say "thank You Lord" knowing that God will somehow bring good ultimately, though we may not know how all the pieces fit together.
"It is not that Christians are to give thanks with a plastic smile, saying things are wonderful when they are hard. It is knowing that the hard things are really hard things, a result of the abnormality of the Fall, yet not revolting against God when the hard things come."
"We do honor to God and the finished work of Christ as we throw the words ‘all things' in Romans 8:28 like a circle around all things..."
"…we are contented before God… yet not complacent about the suffering of the world."
In other words, Christ neither calls us to be indifferent nor to put on a plastic smile. Rather, we are to face the facts of hard reality and then sink our roots more deeply in who He is.
What a privilege that we who are naturally God's enemies can even have a relationship of trusting Him—this faithful, sovereign, covenant keeping God who is incapable of failure.
It's remarkable thing when you stop to think about it, because according to the Bible before salvation you are a slave to the world, the flesh and the devil, and God’s enemy.
Romans 8:7 NIV The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
Ephesians 2:1-2 NIV As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
It's true that those who refuse to become God’s children, are doomed and condemned to an eternity in Hell as it says
John 3:18 NIV Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
The sad fact is this: every person in the entire world who has not been saved is in this horrible, lost condition.
When you stop to consider the truth that a lost, hell-bound, hell-deserving sinner could even be saved by the grace of God, and that same person becomes a child of God through Jesus is profound. We can’t really grasp how an enemy can become a son or daughter and an heir with the same personal relationship as Jesus.
John 17:20-23 NIV “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
How makes and keeps great promises not only for His glory but for the ultimate good of those who are His.
Some content excerpted from Romans 8:28 Does Not Mean Giving Thanks with a Plastic Smile by Alex Crain