The Power of Lament

I am not usually a violent prayer warrior, but that day I felt violent. I was on my way to the hospital because a dear friend was dying. I didn’t just pray and ask God for healing; I screamed at Him. Screaming at the top of my lungs, waves of tears falling down my face, pounding the steering wheel, and not able to catch my breath kind of screaming. This was beyond even ugly crying.

I told God He was making a huge mistake and He would be sorry if He took Brad. Then, I got completely silent, tears slowing, and I said to God, “You have the power to heal him, so you need to just do that. Then the world will be right again.”

I realized that just wasn’t God’s plan and went back to screaming at Him again. And you know what? That’s ok. My anger is no match for Elohim, El Shaddai, for Yahweh.

Friends, there is so much power in our lament. David laments often in his psalms. He isn’t afraid to show God everything in his heart. Because He trusts God, and God wants our authentic selves, including the hard and ugly.

God wants a genuine relationship with us. That means we have to be honest and trust Him with our hearts, too. He wants to hear what we are feeling, what we are angry about, and what we are afraid of. I mean, He already knows, so there’s no point in hiding it. When we take our pain to God, when we trust Him with our fears, He is already waiting.

Lamenting sounds heavy and messy. Because it is! Yet, God won’t leave us or forsake us even when we are being honest and angry at Him. I am so grateful He won’t leave me just because I’m mad at Him.

Our world is angry, divided, and hurting, even among our Christian friends. What if each one of us took our hurt, our offense, our loss, and our fear directly to God, even if it looks and feels messy? What if we scream at Him long enough that He takes our hearts to a place of praise and worship?

There is so much beauty in trusting God to use my lament to move me past the pain and into a place of praise and worship. I want to lay out all my angst at the feet of God, letting Him take on my burdens, my most desperate laments, so that I can get on with the business of praising God and doing the work He ordained specifically for me.

They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps,
hoping to take my life.

Because of their wickedness do not let them escape;
in your anger, God, bring the nations down.

Record my misery;
list my tears on your scroll—
are they not in your record?

Then my enemies will turn back
when I call for help.

In God, whose word I praise,
in the Lord, whose word I praise—

in God I trust and am not afraid.
What can man do to me? Psalm 56:6-11