April 28, 2010

The prayer of Jesus was a question: “Where are you God?” No, He didn’t actually say this. Matthew 27:46 records His words, asking God why He was leaving Him? His cry describes His pain while on the cross. It is a prayer that describes His feelings of alienation from a Holy God because of the effect of sin.

Aren’t there times when our prayers explode into a big question mark? Even as Believers? Haven’t we felt God’s distance or at least His silence or been through a “dark night of the soul”?

A parent confided in me that he came at the threshold of the House of Prayer and couldn’t go further. He was mad at God. He’s been asking God to bring his young adult daughter back. He couldn’t bare to hear how God was answering other people’s prayers while he and his wife cried themselves to sleep because of their “little girl”. “God, why have you abandoned me?” He wondered in anger and grief. He turned around and went home.

Even in His pain, Jesus turned to God and He even used God’s Word. His cry was a quote from Psalm 22:1. The book of Psalms are full of prayers of praise and awe. They also say things that are violent and , well, not very reverent. The Psalms are poems and songs and most importantly, prayers from the heart, and sometimes the heart goes through turbulent emotions and grief.

There is room for joy at the House of Prayer. And there is room for your lament at the House of Prayer.

I heard a story that I never forgot: It was about a Mother who had lost her only son. That mother said that she shook her fist at God when he died, and gave Him a piece of her mind and cried a sea of tears. When she came across this dark spiritual valley and looked back, she realized that she had never severed her connection with God. She prayed, even through her anger.

Remember that father I mentioned here earlier? He and his wife have since returned to the H.o.P.E. They wait in expectation and find strength in the prayers of those around them.

God can handle our disappointments, and our doubts won’t change His opinion of us. Leave these to God, too. Don’t stop turning to Him. God hears your prayers in whatever shape they come.

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the LORD
In the land of the living.

Wait on the LORD;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD! (Psalm 27: 13-14)

Praying for our joy…and hope for the journey,
-Pastor Sabine