Learning to Lament

Lamentations 3:22-26 says,

‘Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;

It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.’ (NIV)

Isn’t it interesting that these beautiful verses are found in the book of Lamentations? Google Dictionary says a lament (noun) is a passionate expression of grief or sorrow, and to lament (verb) is to mourn. Prior to these verses, the author of lamentations lists all the hardships he has been through. Then he comes in with words that extol how he will not be consumed by the hardships themselves, or their effects because of the great love of God.

The presence of lament in the Bible lets us know that God expects us to grieve the hard things in life. Not only that, but because the author of the Book of Lamentations writes his words to the Lord, I think we can deduce that we, too, can go to the Lord with our problems, our laments, and even our complaints. He can take it.

Not only can he take it, but each morning, he has new compassion for us, which tells me that I can never give him too much lament. He will not become annoyed with me or want to send me away from him. If my laments are not finished, he will still be there, listening to whatever I need to tell him. Sometimes I have to give him my junk over and over again until I finally have peace. Sometimes that peace comes in what seems a supernatural way. Other times, the issue gets resolved, and therefore, I no longer need to present it to the Lord.

So great is his faithfulness to walk with us that we can give him our next lament and the next after that. As we move into this new year, I have been thinking about all the things that 2020 threw at us which were far outside our expectations. Woefully, we might be walking into 2021 with much to lament.

Maybe you look around you and feel like your life is falling apart. Tell God what you are going through—even though we know he can see our pain, speaking it out loud to the God we trust brings healing and peace. Maybe you feel like your problems are nothing compared to what you see others going through. Tell the Lord about them, anyway. Maybe nothing seems out of control in your life, but the little things are not on track, and that feels like it is adding up. Ask God to work out those details and show you his presence.

I say we lay it all out for the Lord and let him deal with it all. Ask him what our next steps should be. Open our hearts to the possibilities that wait for us, even the ones we can’t see or about which we tend to doubt God will provide for us.

Lord, you are a good Father and you never leave us or forsake us. We might feel alone, but we never really are. I love to think of you as my Father in Heaven, Jesus beside me, and the Holy Spirit inside me. Let me picture with my actual eyes your Son right here with me, as a reminder that your mercies are new every morning and that I can lament as much as I need to in order to get onto the path you have for me, which is a path of peace. Amen.

Scripture for Reflection

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” (Rom. 12:12 NIV)

“Listen to my words, Lord, consider my lament. Hear my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.” (Ps. 5: 1-3 NIV)

“Now, you women, hear the word of the Lord; open your ears to the words of his mouth. Teach your daughters how to wail; teach one another a lament.” (Jer. 9: 20 NIV)

“The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (Deut. 31:8 NIV)

Reach for More

Turn your laments into prayers. Write them down somewhere in the form of a prayer, asking God to take them off your plate and off your heart. Tell him every little detail about them while you are listing them. Talk or write until you are out of thoughts. Take more than one day if you need to. He can handle it, remember?

Come back to that list weekly or every couple of weeks, and see how God is using those laments to change your heart and draw you closer to himself. Rewrite your lamentations, turning them into prayers of thanks where that is appropriate. Continue to give back to the Lord anything that still troubles you. Thank him for any of the laments-turned-prayers he has taken care of or answered.

Carla Clemens enjoys a crazy, beautiful life with her military husband, four sons, and a daughter. A baby interrupts her homeschool days in the best ways, and she is always attempting to live with mindfulness of each moment. She hopes to look at the world and each person in it in light of our amazing Creator, and therefore, to see each moment presented as an opportunity to love and serve him more. Carla relishes time to ponder God’s Word and have quiet moments with him and her coffee. She loves doing life with other mamas and encouraging them to simply be who God has made them to be.

Photograph © Austin Guevara, used with permission