December 18, 2020

Dear Ones,

Happy weekend to you! I am writing early as I have to bring this computer in and have everything transferred over to my new one. They may keep my computer for a couple days  but hopefully will get it back soon. So you won’t hear from me during this time and will resume when I can. Pray all goes well!

Devotions from Judy’s heart

There are many people hurting and grieving losses of family and friends they miss, situations that have changed dramatically, and sadness for what once was. What do we do with our griefs that seem to be spilling out in various ways?  We can lament! I remember when Al was teaching on lament from the Psalms and how honest King David was before the Lord. One third of the Psalms he wrote were lament. He didn’t sugar coat how he was feeling but just let it all spill out. He said in Psalm 6:6-7, “I am worn out from my groaning. My eyes flood my bed every night. I soak my couch with tears. My eyes blur from grief. They fall because of my enemies.” That’s telling it like it is. Lori Ann Wood wrote an article in Just Between Us magazine on Learning to Lament. Perhaps we all need to do that, especially during this pandemic. She said that lament is a passionate expression of grief and sorrow, admitting to God our pain and confusion. Why God why?  We don’t like what is happening but underneath we still have faith and choose to trust in the Lord. Lori wrote that if we didn’t believe He existed, why would we even complain to Him? And if we didn’t believe He was all powerful, why would we think He could have changed the circumstances and done something about it? She goes on to say we also believe He loves us or why would we think He was listening as we open our hearts and tell Him our griefs?  We don’t have to suffer in silence but we can honestly tell Him just how we feel rather than keeping a stiff upper lip. It is not a failure of faith but an act of faith for we go directly to Him. Lament makes room for God and invites Him into our deepest pains. Jesus himself, experienced so much pain and sorrow in His short life on earth and can identify with us. He enters our suffering and it’s alright to tell Him all. Often, we find that after we have let out our pain and lamented, praise begins to well up in our hearts.

Challenge for today: Tell the Lord how you honestly feel and then leave everything up to Him.