If you have ever prayed, “God, help me. I’m overwhelmed and discouraged. I don’t know if I can keep going,” you were being honest with God—and it’s the kind of prayer God wants to hear from you.

Do you feel under attack? Tell God. Do you feel like you have no energy? Tell God. Do you feel rejected or lonely? Tell God. You have permission to dump everything you’re feeling right now onto the Lord because the Bible says: “Unload all your burden on to him, since he is concerned about you” (1 Peter 5:7 NJB).

But sometimes being honest with God can be intimidating. You might even pretend he doesn’t already know everything about your life. That’s why it’s important to remember three facts about God when you pray.

God knows every emotion you feel. The Bible says, “The LORD gave each of us a mind, and nothing we can do can be hidden from him” (Psalm 33:15 CEV).

When you tell God how you feel, he will never say, “That’s a surprise to me.” Why? Because he created your mind and everything else. You can speak freely to him. Nothing you say will ever catch him off guard.

And when you do share your feelings with God, it’s for your benefit, not his. God knows that when you “unload all your burdens on him,” it relieves a lot of unconscious tension and internal conflict in your life.

God understands your feelings better than you do. The Bible says, “The LORD knows what is in everyone’s mind. He understands everything you think” (1 Chronicles 28:9 NCV). 

I doubt you understand everything you think. I certainly don’t understand everything I think. And sometimes you’ll have an emotion that makes you wonder, “Where did that come from?” But because God gave you your emotions, he always understands them.

The only reason you have emotions is because you’re made in God’s image—and God is an emotional God. The Bible says God gets sad and angry, and he even laughs. Like every gift from God, emotions are appropriate when used in their right place, not to hurt others.

God loves to listen to you. The Bible says, “I love the LORD, because he hears me . . . He listens to me every time I call to him” (Psalm 116:1-2 GNT).

God is a listening God. You may get too busy for a conversation with him, but he is never too busy for a conversation with you. And he doesn’t have a short attention span; he won’t say, “What were you talking about? Can you say that again?” God is always attentive.

So whenever you’re distressed and at the end of your rope, pray honestly and “cry out in the night . . . pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord” (Lamentations 2:19 NIV).