Pouring out your heart in lament to God (Part 1)

“Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore, the law is paralysed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.” – Habakkuk 1:3–4 (NIV)

Introduction

Did you know that even in sadness you can worship God in prayer? Yes, you can worship Him in the midst of difficulty through a prayer of lament, and there are many of these kinds of prayers in Scripture. We can find that all the major Bible characters poured out their hearts to God in lament, which I think is necessary in our prayer lives.

Prayers of lament are so helpful when we experience the dark night of the soul. We live in a broken world where things do not always go the way we want. There are times when we sometimes do not know what God is doing in our lives or which way to turn. Bringing before God a prayer of lament can make all the difference in the world because God actually changes us during these times when we pour out our hearts to Him.

Prayers of lament are a form of worship and faith

As an act of love, we worship God even in the midst of pouring out our difficulty before Him. Instead of backing away from God during a hard time or a dark night, confront the pain, worship God with it, and put everything before Him.

Lamentation is a powerful and meaningful form of worship because it places our love for God above even the worst of circumstances in our life. God does not ask us to deny the existence of our suffering. He does want us to collect it, stand in those things, and make Him an offering.

The Holy Spirit, our Comforter, helps us to do this: He aligns Himself with our will and says, “I will help you to will to worship God.” The glory of the majesty of God is that He helps us will and do.” – Graham Cooke

Let us look at an example of a song of lament that has touched many people throughout the years. The Spafford family lost everything they owned in a fire. Making plans to rebuild, they moved from Chicago to France. Horatio Spafford carefully planned the trip from America to France and booked tickets on a huge ship for his wife and four daughters. He was planning to join them a few weeks later.

On the voyage, the ship was rammed by another vessel and sank, carrying his wife and four daughters to the bottom of the ocean. All his plans suddenly were crushed.

In grief and lament, as his ship passed over the watery grave of his wife and four beloved daughters, he wrote this famous hymn, “It is Well With My Soul.”

Many of us know that hymn and have been touched deeply through the words expressed in every verse. Horatio Spafford knew the power of the prayer of lament in that instant. His words have helped many people face their own sorrows in times of grief. He refused to let go of God in the midst of difficulty and grief.

By Rev. Dr Joyce Aryee,
the author

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