Episode #352 From “How Long “to “I Trust” – How to Bring Your Feelings to God

Hey, friend. Today we're bringing our sadness and our disappointment to the Lord in a form of lament. Lamenting is expressing deep pain, grief, or sorrow to God. And we see all throughout scripture that that's something that God welcomes from us. It's not something that he wants us to have. We live in a fallen world, and so it's part of experience and it doesn't have to be something that we handle separate from God. He invites us to draw near to him with the heaviness and the pain and to express our longing. And the best words that I have ever heard that express this deep, painful waiting, longing, type, lament come from Psalm 13. David is lamenting before the Lord and he says:

"How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
  How long will you hide your face from me?
  How long must I take counsel in my soul
  and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
  How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
  light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
  lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
  lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. 

 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
  my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
  I will sing to the Lord,
  because he has dealt bountifully with me."

We can see in the progression of that psalm, that David goes from this acknowledgement of “How long? How long? How long? How long?” to, “But I trust in your steadfast love.” He doesn't say “how long?” and then it ended and now it's better, and “I rejoice in your steadfast love.” He says, “In the midst of it, I rejoice in the waiting, in the longing, in the pain.”

Yes, probably some in the relief he says, “because he is dealt bountifully with me.” But even in the midst of it, “God, I trust your steadfast love. I trust your salvation. I will turn to you. I will still worship you. I will still bring my heart before you”, which bringing our hearts before the Lord includes bringing our most heartfelt needs.

And so the encouragement that I wanna share with you today is if you feel like you're in a season of “how long, oh Lord, how long will evil prevail?

How long will I carry this dream that has not been fulfilled?

How long will I wait for you to answer this prayer?

How long will I suffer with this affliction?”

Bring that to the Lord.

Whether it feels huge or small, I have found that often the enemy will try and use anything to disqualify something from being brought before the Lord. No matter what's going on, you can bring it all to him. And we don't even need the words. But sometimes God helps give us words, helps give us understanding of what's going on within our own hearts and spirits.

And so here's a question I invite you to take to him as you bring this longing, as you bring this lament, to see how he might share more insight into what's going on:

God, what pain or disappointment needs words today? Will you help me give words to it?

I encourage you, don't hold back from this conversation. Express your lament to God. Ask him for more words, for more understanding of what you're going through and share it with him.

He's fully trustworthy.

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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