When your belly is full of tears

TODAY'S SPECIAL: 2 Chronicles 35-36; Psalm 80

TO CHEW ON: "Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts;
Look down from heaven and see,
And visit this vine." Psalm 80:14


From the vantage point of hindsight we know the "vine's" story—the ups and downs of Israel's history. It's easy for us gloss over generations of slavery in Egypt, the back-and-forth between oppression and freedom of the judges' period, the waves of invaders that led to the exile of the Jews in at the end of the Old Testament.  Our Bible reading takes us through millennia in mere hours. We readily forget how horrible it must have been to live in any one of those dark times.

This psalm, however, seems like a cry from the middle of one of them:

"O Lord God of hosts,
How long will You be angry
Against the prayer of Your people?
You have fed them with the bread of tears,
And given them tears to drink in great measure" - Psalm 80:4,5 (emphasis added).

One of the powerful things about the psalms is how they express the experience and emotion we all go through, no matter when we live. Can't you just hear the Christians of Syria, hounded and killed by ISIS terrorists weeping these verses, or the family in Africa devastated by the  Ebola virus, or the family in North America cut apart by cancer, or…?

In this psalm there is only one resolution to whatever tragedy the pray-er is experiencing. It is God.

Our prayers can echo the psalmist's as we cry from whatever dark place we're in:

"Restore us ... Restore us ... Return we beseech You...
Restore us, O Lord God of hosts,
Cause Your face to shine,
And we shall be saved" - Psalm 80:3,7,14,19.

PRAYER: Dear God, please restore and return to those with their bellies full of tears who call on You today. Amen. 

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 80

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Suffering and lament

"Jeremiah"  by Julius Schnorr Von Karolsfeld

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Lamentations 1-2; Psalm 28

TO CHEW ON: "Judah has gone into captivity
Under affliction and hard servitude;
She dwells among the nations;
She finds no rest;
All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits." Lamentations 1:3

Lamentations is a book of laments. Four of its five poems are acrostics, perhaps the writer Jeremiah's poetic way of exploring his feelings of grief from Aleph to Tau (A to Z).

Jeremiah was mourning the fall of Jerusalem and with it the kingdom of Judah. Second Kings and Second Chronicles tell the story of her moral decline. Despite prophet warnings, the nation has continued downward, perhaps feeling too secure in God's promises of ultimate protection. Finally after a starving siege by the Babylonian army, Jerusalem fell, the city was destroyed, the temple burned, and all but her poorest  citizens marched into exile in Babylon. So Jeremiah weeps.

Some of Lamentation's themes help us understand and deal with our own griefs. (Themes are suggested by the "Introduction to Lamentations" in my Bible, by Roy Edmund Hayden, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, pp. 1037-1038):

1. Their suffering was the result of their sin (Lamentations 1:5, 8, 18, 20).
2. Their suffering was seen as coming from God rather than from men (Lamentations 1:13,15).
3. Their suffering could direct them to God.
4. Suffering, tears, and prayers belong together (Lamentations 1:12, 16, 20).

The reasons we suffer may be different from the reasons Jeremiah and the Israelites suffered. We live under a different covenant where even blatant sinners may not experience punishment for sins until after death (2 Peter 2:4-10). But often we are forced to live the consequences of past actions. And suffering is also allowed to discipline us (Hebrews 12:3-17).

In a personal application part of Lamentation's introduction, R. E. Hayden shares some helpful thoughts about suffering with us:

"We need to submit to what God is doing and attempt to learn from the experience. If it is God's discipline, it will last as long as is necessary. There is no quick-fix solution to some of these problems and no easy way out. Discipline will direct us to God, drive us to prayer, and bring us into submission. We need it" - R. E. Hayden, "Introduction to Lamentations," New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1039 (emphasis added).

PRAYER: Dear God, I hate suffering as much as Jeremiah did. When trouble comes, may it drive me to You. Help me then to learn all the lessons I need to learn. When I am not suffering, help me to be sensitive and comforting to those around me who are. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY:  Psalm 28

The Bible Project VIDEO: Lamentations (Read Scripture Series)

**************
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Jesus is sympathetic

 

Image: Pixabay

TODAY’S SPECIAL: John 11:20-44

TO CHEW ON: “Jesus wept.” John 11:35

As the shortest verse in the Bible, John 11:35 has received its share of attention. But that’s not the reason for our focus on it today. For though brief, this verse shines a light on one of Jesus’ most endearing qualities—His sympathy.

• Matthew recognized this quality in Him. After his account of Jesus’ gentle manner in healing the man with the withered arm, and His refusal to confront His enemies prematurely, he points out how the prophecy of Isaiah 42:1-4 (… a bruised reed He will not break, / And smoking flax He will not quench…”) was fulfilled in Jesus - Matthew 12:18-21.

• In our reading today we see how He wept with His grieving friends, even though He knew that their grief was about to turn to incredulous joy.

• As Jerusalem came in view during His triumphal donkey ride into the city, “He saw the city and wept over it.” It seems that he had prophetic insight over Jerusalem’s fate and it broke His heart - Luke 19:41-43.

• He was thoroughly aware of human frailty when He found the disciples asleep, though He needed them to watch and pray for His sake and their own. His words show His knowledge of human nature: “'Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak'” - Matthew 26:41 (emphasis added); also in Mark 14:38.

• His sympathy as the risen Lord is the subject of a wonderful passage in Hebrews. Because He, our “High Priest” can sympathize with our weaknesses and “was in all points tempted as we are…” we are invited to come, indeed come “boldly” to Him for help when we need it. 

I love how the Message puts this:

“We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help” - Hebrews 4:15-16 MSG.

As we go through today, let’s remember that Jesus’ eyes on us are full of understanding, sympathy, maybe even tears. And His hand is stretched out, inviting us to grab hold and hang on.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for these reminders of Your sympathetic heart toward us fragile and needy humans. Help me to come to You without hesitation whenever I feel needy. Amen.

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

An intercessor's tears

Jeremiah by Rembrandt

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Jeremiah 8:18-9:3

TO CHEW ON: "Oh that my head were waters,
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the daughter of my people!" - Jeremiah 9:1

It is because of passages like this that Jeremiah is called the "weeping prophet."

Why does he weep?

Here he has just predicted the dreadful future God has showed him:
- The land is barren.
- Foreign invaders devastate the countryside and the cities.
- His people are in exile and cry "From a far country" - Jeremiah 8:19.
- It is the end of hope.

No doubt his tears are part sorrow for the grief he sees is in store for the people he loves—no matter how they treat him. But these things haven't happened yet. So could his tears also be the welling up of a spirit of intercession within him?

Dick Eastman in his book Love on Its Knees puts the word "intercession" under the microscope:

[Intercession is derived from the two Latin words inter and cedere: inter meaning "between," "among," "involved," intervention"; and cedere meaning "to go," "to yield," "to move," or" to pay the price of" - Dick Eastman, Love on Its Knees, p. 20.]

He goes on to list four implications about intercession from its meaning:

• "First, the roots suggest that intercession means "to go between," as when stepping between someone and his enemy in battle.

• Second, these terms describe one who "yields himself" among those who are weak and need assistance.

• Third, intercession is a "moving in the direction of involvement" regarding the needs and hurts of others…

• Finally, intercession means "to pay the price of intervention" - Eastman, Ibid (emphasis added).

Can you see how Jeremiah is this kind of intercessor? Though it costs him popularity, comfort, and safety, he feels compelled to speak God's words to his countrymen. He continues on, delivering God's warnings despite rejection, even threats, identifying with his people to the point of tears. (Jeremiah's tears remind us of another intercessor, who also wept over the people who rejected Him  - Luke 19:41).

Do we have such love for the unsaved, such an abhorrence of their eternal future without God that we would make ourselves available to intercede to this extent? For I believe such prayer, indeed such an intercessory life, happens only as the Holy Spirit empowers and prays through us.

PRAYER: Dear God, please grow in me the spirit of intercession to the point of tears—the intercession I see in Jeremiah and Jesus. Amen. 

MORE: Weeping prayers

"At times, God calls us to weep. This is His call to empathy, to vicarious intercessory identification with others. At such times, we must be sure to pray 'us' prayers and not 'them' prayers. We must identify with those in need, rather than condemn and accuse" - Wesley Duewel (quoted in Prayer Powerpoints, p. 163).

***********

Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Liquid prayer

Image: AndersAndersen / pixabay.com

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 126:1-6

TO CHEW ON: "Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy." Psalm 126:5


We could call the crying in this psalm the "ministry of tears" or "liquid prayer" (C. H. Spurgeon). In a sidebar article in my Bible, Dick Eastman has identified six aspects of the ministry of tears that are pictured in the Bible ("Tears and Brokenness in Victorious Warfare," New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 787):

1. Tears of sorrow or suffering:
King Hezekiah was at death's door. He pleaded with God for a longer life. God's answer:

" ' I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold I am healing you…" - 2 Kings 20:5 (AMP).

2. Tears of joy:
Twin brothers Jacob and Esau had been estranged for years following Jacob's deceiving their father over the birthright. Now Jacob needed to pass through Esau's territory with his family and possessions. Did Esau still want to kill him? How would their meeting go? Jacob spent the night before, wrestling with a heavenly Being. In the morning they met this way:

"But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and hugged his neck and kissed him, and they wept [for joy]" - Genesis 33:4 (AMP).

3. Tears of compassion:
Jesus' friend Lazarus had died. As Jesus approached the home of his friend he was met by Mary and friends, all weeping. Even though he knew what He was going to do, in the moment Jesus was overcome by emotion—empathy, compassion:

"Jesus wept" - John 11:35.

4. Tears of desperation:
Haman had convinced King Ahasuerus that it was a good idea to wipe out the Jews. The reaction of Mordecai (Queen Esther's relative) and other Jews in Shushan and throughout the land:

"… He cried out with a loud and bitter cry … And in every province where the king's command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews with fasting, weeping and wailing" - Esther 4:1,3.

5. Tears of travail:
In Isaiah 42, the LORD promises to again provide help to His people. He describes the breakthrough as the the tears a mother cries when in the throes of labour pains:

"I have held My peace a long time. / I have been still and restrained Myself. / Now I will cry like a woman in labor" - Isaiah 42:14.

6. Tears of repentance:
Turning from our sin to God is often accompanied by tears:

"“Even now,” says the Lord,
“Turn and come to Me with all your heart [in genuine repentance],
With fasting and weeping and mourning [until every barrier is removed and the broken fellowship is restored]" - Joel 2:12 (AMP).

Whatever kind tears we are shedding right now, we know that God sees, cares, and takes notice. In our times of weeping, we are comforted, for:

"You number my wanderings;
Put my tears into Your bottle;
Are they not in Your book?
When I cry out to You,
Then my enemies will turn back;
This I know, because God is for me" - Psalm 56:8,9

PRAYER: Dear Father, help me in my times of weeping to turn to You for ultimate help.
Amen.

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

The seed of tears

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 126:1-6


TO CHEW ON: "Those who sow in tears

Shall reap in joy.

He who continually goes forth weeping,

Bearing seed for sowing,

Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing

Bringing his sheaves with him." - Psalm 126:5,6

Have you ever thought of your griefs and disappointments as seed? That's what Eugene Peterson suggests they are:

"All suffering, all pain, all emptiness, all disappointment is seed: Sow it in God and he will finally bring a crop of joy from it" - Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p. 100.

This seed doesn't come in paper packets or burlap sacks but falls from our eyes as tears.

An article in my Bible writes about our tears in another way, as ministry.

"Tears in Scripture play a unique role in spiritual breakthrough. Here...the planting of seeds accompanied by a spirit of brokenness will not only bring a spiritual harvest of results but will leave the sower with a spirit of rejoicing. This passage along with numerous others...pictures a variety of purposes and functions related to what might be termed "the ministry of tears." These are:

• Tears of sorrow and suffering - 2 Kings 20:5.

• Tears of joy - Genesis 33:4.

• Tears of compassion - John 11:35.

• Tears of desperation - Esther 4:1,3.

• Tears of travail or giving birth - Isaiah 42:14.

• Tears of repentance - Joel 2:12,13, Dick Eastman, "Tears and Brokenness in Victorious Warfare," New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 787.

and let me add another:

• Tears that God has seen, collected and that have persuaded Him to come to my defense - Psalm 56: 8,9.

When you and I go through difficult times,  let's view our tears not as a sign of weakness or lack of faith, but part of the cycle of spiritual sowing and reaping. Peterson again:

"There is plenty of suffering on both sides, past and future. The joy comes because God knows how to wipe away tears, and, in his resurrection work, create the smile of new life. Joy is what God gives, not what we work up. Laughter is the delight that things are working together for good to those who love God, not the giggles that betray the nervousness of a precarious defense system. The joy that develops in the Christian way of discipleship is an overflow of spirits that comes from feeling good not about yourself but about God. We find that his ways are dependable, his promises sure" - p. 100, 101.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You that even tears have a kingdom purpose. When sorrow, pain, or confusion come, help me to face my situation with faith and expectation, knowing that my tears have a place in Your plan. Amen.


********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Weeping in the dark

"Rabboni!"  - Artist unknown

TODAY'S SPECIAL: John 20:1-18

TO CHEW ON: " ' They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him. … they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid Him. … Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him and I will take Him away.' " John 20:2,13,15

Mary's shock, perplexity, and desperation soak these verses. Though John's telling has her coming to the tomb alone, Mark's account includes Mary the Mother of James and Salome in this pre-dawn trek. They come with spices to anoint His body.

But the stone is rolled aside and His body gone!

I can imagine Mary's outrage as she breaks the news to Peter and John. She alone returns to the tomb with them. After they've checked the empty tomb for themselves and return home, she stays behind weeping.

But surely there must be some mistake. On looking into the burial place again she sees two angels (do you think she realized these were angels at the time?). One asks "Woman, why are you weeping?" She answers, "Because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid Him."

Her interchange with the 'gardener' follows the same lines. She remains grief-absorbed until His "Mary" opens her eyes.

Mary's experience here reminds me of what we often go through in our times of desperation before Jesus shows up in one way or another. He could have saved Mary all those tears if He'd showed Himself to her and the others when they first arrived. But He didn't.

In Mary's life and often in ours, that seems to be His way. He comes in His own sweet time, after leaving us to weep in the dark for a while.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, whether my time of puzzlement is short or long, please help me to never lose faith in You and Your good plans for me. Amen.

MORE: Feast of Mary Magdalene

Today the church liturgy celebrates the Feast of Mary Magdalene. The day's readings opens with this collect (the healing referred to in the prayer refers to her being set free from demon possession - Luke 8:2) :

Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene to health of body and of mind, and called her to be a witness of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by your grace we may be healed from all our infirmities and know you in the power of his unending life; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

 *********

Subscribe to my newsletter coming September 1st. 

Get book recommendations, Bible study tips, author news plus a full-colour 18-month Pathways Scripture text calendar when you sign up!  

Sign up below:

Subscribe to my quarterly newsletter

*********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Weeping intercession

Jeremiah weeping (Lamentations 2-4) - Artist unknown

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Lamentations 2:1-22

TO CHEW ON: "'Arise, cry out in the night,
At the beginning of the watches;
Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward Him
For the life of your young children,
Who faint from hunger at the head of every street.'" Lamentations 2:18,19

In this chapter Jeremiah (most likely the writer of Lamentations) bears witness to the unthinkable. God Himself has destroyed Jerusalem. He has withdrawn His protection so that enemies have devoured her like a "flaming fire" (Lamentations 2:1-3). Her palaces are toppled, her strongholds destroyed. God has even abandoned the temple so that the noise from it on feast days is the voice of the enemy (Lamentations 2:4-8).

Leaders sit in mourning and the surprising thing is that Jeremiah is with them, at least in spirit. Hasn't he warned them to repent or this would happen? Now it has so shouldn't he be gloating? But that's not Jeremiah. Instead he weeps with the most distraught.

It seems his emotions are aroused especially by the children—the poor starving children:

"My eyes fail with tears
My heart is troubled ….
Because the children and the infants
Faint in the streets of the city.
They say to their mothers
'Where is grain and wine?'
As they swoon like the wounded
In the streets of the city…" - Lamentations 2:11,12.

I see two lessons for us from Jeremiah's reaction here:

1. The true intercessor identifies with those he or she prays for. She lets her heart get moved to tears as she prays for things that weigh on her spirit. As Leslyn Musch says in her commentary on verse 18: "Do not hold back your tears as you pray and intercede …. Do not hold back in pouring out your heart before the Lord" - Leslyn Musch, Truth-In-Action Through Lamentations, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1049.

2. We too should be moved by the plight of our children. No, most of our kids aren't starving in the street (in fact the opposite, as many are overweight from too much junk food and inactivity). But they need our intercession like never before.

• Too many are victims of broken homes and confusing relationships as they experience the consequences of our unfaithfulness.

• Educators are mandating that the youngest be exposed to sexually confusing and explicit information (StopCorruptingChildren.ca website has links to proposed and implemented curricula).

• Technology has opened doors to evil for our kids like never before. Research indicates that the average age of a child accessing pornography is 12 ("MP Joy Smith urges Canada to follow British approach to blocking pornography"- July 2013 Catholic Register article).

• Too many youth are in despair to the point of committing suicide because of bullying spread via social medial.

What is our response? Do we stand back with a smug "I told you so" attitude? Or do we allow our hearts to be moved by the plight of our society—especially the children?


PRAYER: Dear God, please touch and burden my heart with the things that move Yours, especially the plight of our children. Amen. 

***********

New King James Version (NKJV) Used with permission. The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Ministry of tears

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Psalm 126:1-6

TO CHEW ON: “Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.
He who continually goes forth weeping
Bearing seed for sowing
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing
Bringing his sheaves with him.” Psalm 126:5,6

Emotion is never glossed over in the Bible. In Scripture real men and women cry. “Tears in Scripture play a unique role in spiritual breakthrough,” begins a sidebar article in my Bible.

Here are some of the varieties in the ministry of tears:
- Tears of sorrow or suffering – 2 Kings 20:5
- Tears of desperation – Esther 4:1,3
- Tears of joy – Genesis 33:4
- Tears of compassion – John 11:35
- Tears of travail or birth – Isaiah 42:14
- Tears of remorse – Matthew 26:75
- Tears of repentance – Joel 2:12-13
- Tears of planting – our focus verses above.

What tears are you shedding today? Tears of remorse over some failure or shortcoming of your own? Tears of suffering over sickness (your own or someone else's) or the death of a loved one? Tears of travail over the state of an unsaved son, daughter, parent, spouse or friend? Tears of frustration over the apparent lack of effectiveness of your life?

Whatever your tears, don’t hide them from God. He understands and in due course will answer. Your liquid prayer has its purpose in His plan.

PRAYER: Dear God, my heart breaks over many things. See my grief, helplessness, desperation, and need. Please use my tears to nurture your plans and purposes on earth. Amen

MORE: Sayings about tears

“Tears are liquid prayer.” ~ Charles Spurgeon.

"Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts." ~Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, 1860

"Tears are God’s gift to us. Our holy water. They heal us as they flow." ~Rita Schiano, Sweet Bitter Love, 1997, published by The Reed Edwards Company

"What soap is for the body, tears are for the soul." ~Jewish Proverb

“You number my wanderings;

Put my tears into Your bottle;

Are they not in Your book?” ~ Psalm 56:8