Daily Manna · Day 195 · July 14
Pour Out Your Heart
“Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us.”
A man sits in his parked car, praying out loud. Halfway through a sentence he hears himself and starts again in a better voice. He came out here to say something true, and it is coming out more churchy than he feels.
Look at what this verse does not ask of you. "Pour out" is the Hebrew verb for emptying a jar. It is used of water tipped out onto the ground, and of a drink offering poured out. Nothing is said about the contents being fit to offer. Nothing says you must sort out your thoughts first, or reach a conclusion before you speak. And "at all times" sits in the same sentence, which plainly includes the times when you are not calm.
That does not mean God is careless about what comes out, which would be the opposite mistake. The reason for the pouring comes at the end of the verse: "God is a refuge for us." A refuge is a place with walls around it. What you say inside it stays there, and it cannot be used against you afterward.
So the promise is small, and it is enough. There is somewhere you can empty the whole jar, even resentment with a name attached and fear with a person's face in it. You will not be thrown out for it. The verse says that God is a refuge for us now, as you come, and it does not say He might become one if what you bring proves acceptable.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 195 is The Hand Put Out (Ephesians 4:32).