In the Book of Psalms there are 58 laments…they are the most numerous type among the 150 Psalms in the Bible. But yet we’ve built a Church culture where expressing sorrow, distress, doubts, fears, exhaustion, or grief feels more like a lack of faith than a cry for mercy. Our performance driven Church culture instead wants us to reply to any inquiry with a quick, “I’m Okay!” We only need to look at Hannah’s heartfelt cry to God from the depths of her despair and the priest’s reply to see how this could be incorrectly judged. From I Samuel 1: 10-15 we find Hannah…barren for years and struggling with the deep sorrow of being childless. Her private & very personal prayer in the Tabernacle that day was earnest, brutally honest, and intentional. It was a faith-filled cry to God affirming her trust in Him in the midst of her anguish. But Eli, the priest, just saw a drunk and “worthless” woman muttering in the pew…of which, she was neither. Thus, laments are a model for our prayers, showing that they are a legitimate and vital expression of honesty, faith, and worship.
Safetypinlove 