Hope When You Are Hurting

We all go through seasons of great hurt, pain, and even suffering. Perhaps you are in one right now; maybe recovering from a betrayal or feeling very alone. When we find ourselves in these trials, often we respond by pretending all is well or giving in to despair - but both inflict greater harm to us.

God shows us a better way, in a term that is nearly extinct today: to lament. This means to lay our hearts before God. To lay our hurt, our pain, our frustration, our anger out before our Father, and to call things as they are. God welcomes us to come to Him and do this. He does not ask us to pretend the world, our world, isn’t broken, or pretend all is well.

In a book of the Bible, called Lamentations, the prophet Jeremiah, models this so well. For twenty verses (chapter 3) he pours out his frustration and his anger. He weeps and feels alone. He wonders where God is in the brokenness. Jeremiah gets out his pain - then turns towards the hope of a better day; hope that can only come from a loving God. Lamenting honestly expresses our despair, but it doesn’t stay there. It balances the tension between pain and hope.

After Jeremiah’s long lament, hear the conclusion he settles on: “Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him! The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.”  Lamentations 3:21-26 NLT

Once he pours out his pain, Jeremiah then reminds himself who God is. This encourages him. He lifts his soul through hope in a God who passionately loved him and loves us.

Check out a great message from Pastor Craig Groeschel who unpacks this so well. May you find hope in your pain!