To lament, we:

Make Our Request. Let God know what you want Him to do about it.

The pain of the past often clouds our ability to hope. They wear us down, wearing out our ability to look forward and see anything other than what we’re experiencing in the moment. When we’ve been anxious for so long, we think anxiety is all we’ll feel. When we’ve been depressed for so long, we start to think that depression is all we’ll experience. When we begin to face our trauma, we begin to feel that the triggers that fill our days and weeks are all we’ll experience. The enemy is masterful at using the truth of our experiences to bait us into the lie that our lives will never get better.

Making a request of God requires that we bring to the front of our minds what our deepest desires are. They require that we imagine, even for just a moment, that we can have what our souls are thirsting for.

When we utilize our holy imagination to imagine something we don't yet have, to set our hearts on feelings we haven't yet experienced, we attune our souls to the song of deliverance God is singing to us. We set our hearts on the heavenly riches we have access to, even if we have not yet held on to them. On a neurological level, hope expands the possibilities that our brain keeps in mind as we take our everyday actions. If we believe that nothing in our lives will change and that we’ll always be sad, we begin to take actions that validate that end goal. When we hope and believe that peace can be our portion, we gain the opportunity to take actions that align with that truth.

Making a request of God causes us to hope and to remember that all power is in His hands. It allows us to embody the biblical imperative to approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we can have our needs met by God (Hebrews 4:16).

If you could get God to do anything about the anxiety, depression, or trauma that you’re dealing with, what would you ask Him? What could only He do?

Application:

1. Call on God using the sentence from week 1: “ _________, You are here.”
2. Make your complaint clear to God.
3. Then make your request to God.