To lament, we:

Make Our Complaint: Sharing with God what is making you frustrated, sad, angry etc.

I believe one of the greatest myths that keeps believers from the eternal gift of presence with God that we have access to is the lie that God doesn't care about how we feel. Many of us have been told or taught in one way or another that God doesn't care about anything but His will. This lie keeps us from crying out to God. It keeps us from getting close enough to God to experience the tenderness, compassion, and grace that He offers us every day by convincing us to turn our back to God when we feel anything that we think opposes His will.

God cares about how you feel, even if what you desire isn't in His will.

We see this to be true when Jesus prepared to go to the cross. Before His time for crucifixion came, Jesus decided to pray to His Father. In that prayer is a model of vulnerability from Jesus that we are called to model to our heavenly Father as well. We see a glimpse of how dearly God holds and regards our pain and desires no matter what the circumstance is.

In Matthew 26:39-42, Jesus cries out to God saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” At that moment Jesus does something He doesn't have to. He calls on God and expresses His fear, sadness, and lack of desire to go to the cross and endure the weight of the world. Jesus, being God Himself, already knew that He must go. He knew that nothing could change the truth that He had to go to the cross. And yet, He took time to express how He felt, modeling for us that the sinless perfection Jesus lived on earth included vulnerably sharing His negative feelings with God.

In our likeness to Jesus, we are called to make the pains of our hearts known to God by sharing them with Him. He is trustworthy. He cares. And we matter to Him. That is why He wants us to share with Him what’s in our hearts.

Application:

1. Call on God using the sentence we used yesterday: "________, You are here.”
2. Then, as honestly as you can, share with God what’s on your heart. Don’t try to make it seem pretty. Don't try to use words or phrases that you’ve heard others use. Go to God with your words and your pain. He’s here. He’s waiting. He’s listening.