True repentance, continued

We are talking this week about repentance. Not the casual kind. Not the glib kind. Not the hey, I'm-not-so-bad-after-all or everybody-does-it kind.
What IS true repentance?
Let's look at Ezra chapter 10 again and see . . . .
Ezra's mourning over the sins of the people led others to gather around him. They saw their own sins for what they were, and they began to weep. One of the people becomes an unofficial spokesperson and confesses the sin -- he proposes to Ezra that the people make a covenant to correct their sin. Now, Shecaniah himself is not listed in the group of offenders, but scholars tell us that his dad might be the "Jehiel" in verse 26.
Ezra seems to have trusted his leadership, for he calls the exiles to Jerusalem. They were all shivering in the chilly December rain, and they agreed they had sinned. Only four men opposed the plan that Ezra proposed to them, and they are noted in verse fifteen. They appointed what we would call a "commission" nowadays, to examine each case. The commentaries that I consulted seemed to be in agreement; from the culture and practices of the Jewish people, they feel that if the pagan women would renounce their idols and destroy them, and pledge faith to the God of Israel, then all would be well.
But in the cases where the women refused to give up their idols, then the marriages were dissolved. Presumably there would be arrangements for compensation so that the wives and the children involved would be take care of.

Now, let's go back to verse one:

While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites—men, women and children—gathered around him. They too wept bitterly. (verse 1)

Ezra was showing genuine repentance, and was showing it toward God. We see in verse two that Shecaniah says they have been unfaithful "to our God." And the people trembled at God's commandment in verse three, so they knew they needed to confess to the Lord (verse 11). Sin always ends up hurting other people. We need to ask their forgiveness when we sin against them -- but sin is first and foremost against God Himself. Remember when David not only committed adultery, but added murder to it? He said "I have sinned against the Lord." And he wrote this:

For I know my transgressions,    and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned    and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict    and justified when you judge. (Psalm 51:3-4)

Didn't he sin against Bathsheba? Against her husband? Absolutely! But those sins were pale in comparison to his offense against the holy God. When a believer sins, he gives plenty of ammunition to the devil and enemies of God:

But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, (II Samuel 12:14a)

We show contempt for our holy God, and even more -- unbelievers will mock God and also they will justify their own sins when they hear of a Christian's sin. So, our sin is primarily against God. This means that our repentance must be toward Him as well.

True repentance involves feeling the "wrongness" of our sins. I know I kinda made up a word, there, but bear with me. Both Ezra and the people who gathered around him wept. Why? Because they saw just how unfaithful they had been and they trembled at God's Word that warns of His righteous judgment.
Sorrow should, then, be proportional. Even though according to God's Word, sin is sin. No little ones, no big ones. I guess I mean that there are some sins that hurt more people, and some that hurt just us. Just our relationship with Him. We should keep a tender conscience and confess those relationship sins to Him; then we can move on. (We should remember to ask the Spirit's help for strength to avoid those sins in the future.) If we have sinned in a major way, and hurt others as well as ourselves, then it's appropriate to be deeply grieved and to mourn. This comes from our understanding of the serious consequences our sins bring on ourselves and on others.
Even though we are God's people, our sins can grieve the Spirit and arouse His "anger" (Ezra 10:14, 9:14). I wonder if today we have lost our fear of God's judgment. We only view God as loving and forgiving.
Remember when Moses asked to see God's face?

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. (Exodus 34:6-7a)

We all like the sound of this, right? But what about the next phrases? The rest of verse seven?

Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” (v 7b)

The realization that my own sins have consequences . . . . that those consequences may be very long-lasting, makes me feel those sins deeply. And it makes me turn from them. Makes me repent toward God.

More on this tomorrow!

True repentance

Happy endings.
I love 'em.
I'm showing my age, I know.
I'm old school: when I watch a movie, I want to invest my time in something uplifting. I'm not too interested in an "important" film, or a kleenex-box-needed tear jerker. (Yes, I will watch documentaries and other videos to know about important issues, but I'm talking about the times that I sit down and want to watch something just for my own pleasure and entertainment.)
There may be some heartache, some tears.
But you know that at the end, all the loose strings will be tied up and a positive outcome will result.
That's why I mostly watch movies from the thirties and forties. (Grin)
Anyway, I digress.
We are ready for the final chapter of Ezra.
Like an old movie, there will be some conflict and some heartache.
But at the end, there will be a positive outcome.
Ready?
I'm going to trust that you will find time to read the tenth and final chapter of Ezra in your quiet time. I am going to post the first seventeen verses here for us, since the remainder of the chapter is a list of the names of men who had married "foreign" women, or women outside of the Jewish faith.

 While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites—men, women and children—gathered around him. They too wept bitterly. 2 Then Shekaniah son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel. 3 Now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all these women and their children, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law. 4 Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.”5 So Ezra rose up and put the leading priests and Levites and all Israel under oath to do what had been suggested. And they took the oath. 6 Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he was there, he ate no food and drank no water, because he continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.7 A proclamation was then issued throughout Judah and Jerusalem for all the exiles to assemble in Jerusalem. 8 Anyone who failed to appear within three days would forfeit all his property, in accordance with the decision of the officials and elders, and would himself be expelled from the assembly of the exiles.9 Within the three days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem. And on the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people were sitting in the square before the house of God, greatly distressed by the occasion and because of the rain. 10 Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful; you have married foreign women, adding to Israel’s guilt. 11 Now honor the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives.”
12 The whole assembly responded with a loud voice: “You are right! We must do as you say. 13 But there are many people here and it is the rainy season; so we cannot stand outside. Besides, this matter cannot be taken care of in a day or two, because we have sinned greatly in this thing. 14 Let our officials act for the whole assembly. Then let everyone in our towns who has married a foreign woman come at a set time, along with the elders and judges of each town, until the fierce anger of our God in this matter is turned away from us.” 15 Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah, supported by Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite, opposed this.16 So the exiles did as was proposed. Ezra the priest selected men who were family heads, one from each family division, and all of them designated by name. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to investigate the cases, 17 and by the first day of the first month they finished dealing with all the men who had married foreign women. (Ezra 10:1-17)

Wow......there's a lot here, no?
The focus of our study this week will be repentance, taken from those verses above.
In our world today, we often see that people are caught for their crimes (some seem to get away with their wickedness, but that's a story for another day) and some are defiant; some are repentant. Often the ones who want everyone to think they've repented and turned over a "new leaf," are the ones who turn out to be deceiving us. They may say the right things at first, and they seem sorry for what they've done, but we find out later that they didn't really mean what they said!
Television evangelists, financial wizards, even presidents are exposed for their wrongful deeds. Are they genuine when they say they are sorry? Only God knows their hearts, but sometimes a word or two here and there, or even subsequent behavior will tell us they didn't truly repent.
As believers, we know that sin isn't something that we catch like the latest flu or cold virus!
And the Bible is clear that there's genuine repentance and false repentance. Remember ole Pharaoh? He told Moses twice that he, Pharaoh, had sinned (Exodus 9 and 10) but we see later that his heart did NOT change!
Esau wept about his birthright after he gave it away, but in Hebrews 12 we see that he didn't truly repent. Judas felt remorse over betraying our Savior, but he didn't repent (Matthew 27).
If we want to have a right relationship with our Father, we must make certain that our repentance is genuine, not casual.
Let's dig into our text . . .
First, genuine repentance involves heartfelt sorrow. Not being sorry that you got caught! It means that you are sorrowful for the sins and then take prompt action to mitigate them (more on that later). Remember last week when we talked about mourning over our sins? Agreeing with a holy God that we've flubbed up?
Well, (quick review here) the problem in Ezra 9 and 10 concerns the Jewish exiles who returned to the homeland and took pagan wives. We saw that the instructions in Deuteronomy 7 had been totally forgotten, and they'd disobeyed God's commandment. In the eleventh verse, Ezra gets right to the point, telling them what they must do:

Now therefore, make confession to the Lord God of your fathers and do His will; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.” (Ezra 10:11)

We can see here that Ezra is looking for genuine sorrow over what they had done, and he indicates it will not be sorrow in words only . . . it will also be seen in obedience to God.

So as to make these posts easier to study, I will close here and begin again tomorrow.
See you then!

Confession is truly good for the soul

After we recognize our sin, and we grieve over it, the last step is to confess it without making excuses to our merciful Father.
Ezra's prayer in chapter nine is a wonderful model for Christians to study.

 “What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this. 14 Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor? 15 Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.” (v 13-15)

No excuses here!
The first thing that Ezra said was to agree with God that He had given them less punishment so far then their sins deserved. Then he agrees with God that according to their flouting of His Word, they deserve no mercy. And then he agrees with God that they'd been sent into captivity for sins many years ago.
Ezra says, in effect, "we are sinful and You are holy. We don't deserve any mercy." So the first element of confession is to agree that God is righteous, and we are not.
The second element is to confess without making excuses. Ezra doesn't breathe a word of complaint here. He doesn't say that God is not being fair. Many people today will point to "extenuating circumstances" and Ezra doesn't do that. Maybe there hadn't been enough Jewish women for all the men to marry, so they married pagan wives. Maybe they rationalized it by thinking, "Well, they will worship at the temple with us. They promised to do that."  Ezra? He doesn't use any of that. Rather than making excuses or rationalizing, he readily acknowledges that God would be quite fair if He punished them.
There's something really interesting here about Ezra, and it points to the fact that he was truly steeped in the Word. He identifies with the people - in spite of the fact that he's innocent of this sin! It shows that he is well aware of the evil that could so easily take root in his own heart. If he'd been a self-righteous man, he might have prayed and said to God: "These people of yours are wicked, Lord. They're obstinate, too. Now, I'm not like them, but You would be righteous to punish them."  Instead, he included himself when he confessed the sins of the people.

We humans are prone to minimize our sin. We call it many things.
Faults.
Shortcomings.
Tendencies.
Terms that seem more benign than "sin."
Ezra says that their sins have "risen over" their heads (v 6):

Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God 6 and prayed:“I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. (Ezra 9:6)

Kinda like saying they're drowning in a flood of their sins.
He also refers to their guilt, and in verses ten through eleven, he admits that they are guilty of forsaking God's commandments by joining with the pagan peoples of the land.  Again in verses thirteen and fourteen, he refers to their evil deeds and great guilt. No sugar coating here!
He doesn't gloss over their sins.
He doesn't say sin is not a big deal.
He calls their wickedness what it is.
He is agreeing with God on His view of sin. And so must we. And the final point of his prayer is one that we can identify with, too.
At the end of his prayer, Ezra casts himself and the people on God's mercy. His undeserved mercy. He also thanks God for the current return from exile and the building of the temple -- calls them a gracious reviving from God -- and notes that those who sinned have disregarded those blessings. He says they've been ungrateful for the "light to their eyes" and "relief from bondage." (NIV)

The Bible tells us in verse five that Ezra made this lengthy prayer at the time of the evening offering. I wonder if the scents and sounds of the sacrifice encouraged his heart because God had made a way for sinners to be reconciled to Him - through the shedding of blood of a substitute. Those Old Testament sacrifices pointed to the future: to the shed blood of God's perfect (and final) sacrifice, our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. It's through faith in His blood cleansing us from sin that we can draw near to God.

Ezra's prayer has a lot to teach us. We need to be immersed daily in the Word of God, so that we can see our sin clearly in the light of the scriptures.  Then we will realize that it put our Savior on the cross and we will mourn over that sin.  Then we can confess it to the God of mercy, making no excuses, and receive His cleansing for our sins. We will receive that cleansing with joy, and be renewed to serve Him!

Lord, help me to dwell at the foot of the cross, and receive your mercy daily for my sins.

Hope everyone has a blessed and peaceful weekend!

Repentance of sin

Yesterday, we studied in the ninth chapter of Ezra and saw that we need to recognize sin because of our knowledge of the Word of God. The scriptures show us what is right, and what is wrong -- and they show us what sin does to people, too.

What is step two? Once we see that we've done wrong, what do we do?
The godly reaction to sin is to mourn and to repent of it.
When Ezra heard from the leaders about the sin of God's people, he tore his garment and his robe and pulled hair from his head and his beard. He sat down appalled. That may sound extreme to us, and the tearing has a lot to do with the culture of the time. But the important thing to me is that he was appalled.

When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. 4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice. (Ezra 9:3-4)

Perhaps this is something that is missing in the lives of many believers today. Indeed, missing from many of our churches today. If sin doesn't appall us, then do we truly believe that sin provokes the wrath of our holy God?
These are the words of Jesus:

Blessed are those who mourn,    for they will be comforted. (Matthew 5:4)

Does the church today have a "defective" view of sin? Do we even hear much about the doctrine of sin?  Perhaps the reason why professing Christians lack real joy is that they have never truly experienced conviction of their sins.

We must be convicted of our sins before we can experience joy of being redeemed from them! But people today don't like the doctrine of sin. In fact, they dislike it intensely, and they really object pretty strenuously to hearing it preached!
They want what some preachers call "a relationship" but not "redemption." Redemption means that there is something wrong with their lives that must change. Not what they want to hear.
Make a "decision" for Christ, the preachers intone. A decision about what? Unless the doctrine of sin is preached, how do people know what it is that stands between them and God? How can they effect change?
Many have thought they were restored, like the prodigal son, but they've not said, "Father, I have sinned." They've skipped the step where in the hog wallow, the son realized he was miserable -- and he realized how to change it. How can people be healed if they don't know they are ill?
Yes, the "old-fashioned" view of sin is despised, and people are left unaware of the true message of God's gospel.
There is a popular Christian song today that sums up this problem:

 "If I didn't know what it hurt like to be broken
Then how would I know what it feels like to be whole?
If I didn't know what it cost like to be rejected
Then I wouldn't know the joy of coming home.
If I didn't know what it looked like to be dirty
Then I wouldn't know what it feels like to be clean.
And if all of my shame hadn't drove me to hide in the shadows
Then I wouldn't know the beauty of being free."  The Messengers

One of the distinguishing marks of a believer is that she mourns over sin - both her own and the sins of others. God changes our hearts in the new birth, and gives Christians new desires for holiness in our lives; He also imbues us with a hatred of sin.

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. (Romans 12:9)

Let those who love the Lord hate evil,    for he guards the lives of his faithful ones
    and delivers them from the hand of the wicked. (Psalm 97:10)

Ezra was so well-versed, so steeped in the Word of God and in the history of His ways with His wayward people, that he knew God's discipline would fall again if the people didn't repent. Even though Ezra himself had not committed the sin, he mourned over it.
One thing to consider before we close for today: how do we mourn over our sins? When the Spirit convicts us, what is an effective way to grieve?
I believe the first thing is to name the sins in our prayers to the Father. To consider them and to realize what led us there; perhaps another sin made the offense possible. Naming them puts more of the responsibility on us. Secondly, take a long, hard look at our sin -- what has it cost us? Other people? What did it cost Jesus, our Savior?  Seeing our sins as costly will bring true sorrow, and we will desire to make changes in our lives.
Lastly, there is hope in mourning. In grieving over our sin, we can remember that as God shines His light on our sins, we can have faith in Christ's sacrifice on the cross. It is His grace and mercy that will allow us to go on, and to be free from our sin.

Have mercy on me, O God,    according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion    blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity    and cleanse me from my sin. (Psalm 51:1-2)

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)

How we react to sin

We saw that in chapter nine, Ezra's reaction to the sin of the people was pretty significant. He didn't chuckle or excuse it. He didn't make excuses.
Why did he react the way he did?
I'm glad you asked that! (Grin)
Let's look in our Bibles and talk about this today . . .

How DO we know what is right, and what is wrong? As believers, we need to be able, as my grandma used to say, "to call a spade a spade."
Is it what "feels right"?
Feelings are not a solid basis for determining what's wrong and what's right!
As fallible human beings, we can feel "good" about doing something wrong, simply because we've convinced ourselves that it's the right thing to do. Or the only thing to do. Or that we have no choice. The "peace" we may feel is not based on scripture, but on our own relief that we've finally made a decision and don't have to think about it any more!

Many people will say that we should follow our consciences -- but our conscience is only reliable if we have allowed it to be molded by the Word of God. Our sense of right and wrong, moral and immoral, must be formed by the Bible, not by our culture!

The first thing a godly person must do is to recognize sin -- from Scripture. It's the Bible, the Word of God, that reveals to us what is sin.
Ezra was stunned when he heard about the Jews who had married pagans - because he knew that God's Word condemns it. He cries out to God, "For we have forsaken Your commandments." He goes on to state God's instructions against intermarriage with pagans in the land. He doesn't quote it word for word, but you can see his words are based on Exodus 34 and also Deuteronomy 7.

 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— 2 and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. 3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. (Deuteronomy 7:1-4)

Ezra and the leaders who reported this sin to him were well aware that this was sin - because God's word declared it to be sin.
Now, let's make a distinction here: when the princes (leaders) reported that the Jewish seed had been intermingled with the peoples living in the land, they were not concerned about racial issues. Their concern was about moral corruption. See the fourth verse up there? God knew the tendency of fallen hearts. Rather than influencing their mates from the land to abandon their idols, and to worship YAHWEH, the Israelites would be prone to mingle pagan idolatry with their worship of God.

This has always been a major problem for God's people, and one of Satan's most effective tools, too. We don't blatantly deny Christianity. We don't turn completely and walk away. Instead, we add to our faith some of the beliefs and practices of the world, and in very short order there's no difference in the way we think and live, compared to the world. Because of this tendency in humans, God forbade intermarriage -- there had to be a clear line of separation of God's people from the pagans.....or the people of God would be drawn into the practices of the pagans.

This doesn't mean that we should be hermits and draw away from the world. It doesn't mean that we need to submit to the monasticism of convents and monasteries. The problem with that concept is that Jesus wants His followers to be in the world as light and salt, but not to be OF the world.

I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. (John 17:14-18)

He has given us a mission: to reach the world with His gospel. To do that effectively, we must remain unsullied by the world. The way that we think, and the way that we act must be shaped by scripture, not by the world we live in.  James puts it quite bluntly, that friendship with the world is hostility toward God (James 4:4). And John reminds us:

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. I John 2:15)

Even today, it's wise to avoid marriage with unbelievers. Many Christians fall in love with non-believers and then fall away from their faith, or have their zeal for the things of the Lord greatly diminished.  If we know and love the Lord Jesus, the most important thing to look for in a mate is not a winning smile, a kind heart, polite manners, or sparkling eyes. The most important thing is a person must love Christ and be devoted to following Him.  Why is this so important? Well, looking at it logically, a believer and an unbeliever will have totally different worldviews, values, and goals. An unbeliever is living for pleasure, for the things the world offers. A believer is living to seek first the kingdom of God and righteousness. There's going to be a lot of bumping of heads in the home where these two goals are competing! So, we must be on our guard; if we are already married, we must counsel others -- check out II Corinthians 6:14 for the low down on it!

We can see that scripture helps us to recognize sin; it can also reveal to us what sin DOES to people. The devil is always going to sugarcoat this -- he wants sin to look as appealing as it can be. We will assume that sin will get us just what we want, but in actuality, it will always lead to bondage and ruin. Look at some of the things that Ezra said in his prayer:

From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today. (Ezra 9:7)

In four of the next few verses (8, 13, 14, and 15) he refers to the people as an escaped remnant -- he is pointing to how a formerly strong nation had been subjugated. He uses words like "slaves," and "bondage" to describe the situation of the people, and he acknowledges that if they don't "straighten up and fly right" they will incur terrible wrath. If they don't repent, God may destroy them (verse 14).
God's Word plainly warns us that sin will enslave us. It can destroy us. It also takes quite a toll on those around us. If we blend into the world, people won't hear or see our witness. They will not know of the gospel. Our children and our friends will think that Christianity has nothing to do with how we live. They may even reject the faith altogether.

What's the solution?
To immerse ourselves in the Word of God, so that we recognize sin in ourselves and immediately turn away from it.

I seek you with all my heart;    do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart    that I might not sin against you.Your word is a lamp for my feet,    a light on my path.My heart is set on keeping your decrees    to the very end. (Psalm 119: 10, 11, 105, 112)

The first reaction to sin is to recognize it. We'll talk more about this tomorrow . . .

Prayer requests

Recently, I've been in correspondence with some of the wonderful prayer warriors who study here at the blog. I've been moved by the difficult times they are dealing with. And they have assured me that they will pray for challenges that I am facing.
Have you ever tried to pray, but all you can do is cry?
Instead of being able to form words, all that comes out is your tears as you kneel before Him? We may be expressing our brokenness over our own sins. We may be sorrowing over the loss of a life, whether young or old. We may be grieving over the loss of closeness in an earthly relationship.
Many times this comes right after a period of renewal or of a "mountaintop" experience. Why? Because the devil hates it when we have those. And he wants to bust it up. Remember? He's roaming around like a hungry lion, looking for ways to harm us.
But God promises us:

"no weapon forged against you will prevail,    and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,    and this is their vindication from me,”declares the Lord. (Isaiah 54:17)

But that doesn't help my heart when I'm sobbing in pain. Not right away. When I only have pain to put into His hands, do I dare to give Him that brokenness? What right do I have to do that? Aaah, that's the devil whispering there.
Here's the real truth:

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted    and saves those who are crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18)

Now, the psalmist is talking my language. Broken. Crushed. Been there.
He's close to me!
I do know that.
Because in my pain, I can recall other times He has been faithful.
Let's look at a few women who have felt this way . . .  remember our study of Hannah? She is utterly broken because she didn't have a child. Stop and think a minute. As believers, isn't that in our hearts? As Christian women, we yearn to pour life into others. To offer the life we have experienced to others who need it. But sometimes we just don't "have the bandwidth." It's as if the life has been sucked out of us. Such a vacuum that our hearts are simply shattered into tiny pieces.
That's when we need to offer those pieces to the Great Physician.
Another woman who cried: Mary, who wept for Lazarus in his grave. The Bible tells us Jesus was moved by her grief. So we know that He is moved by ours.

Never forget, as we kneel and can only cry, that we have Someone who prays on our behalf. When we don't know how to pray, or when we are too broken to find the words, the Spirit intercedes:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  (Romans 8:26)

I've been touched as I re-read the story of Mary, by the fact that she waited at His feet. She sat patiently and listened. (Check out Luke 10 if you have time.) Perhaps I need to get more comfortable with sitting quietly at His feet. As. Long. As. It. Takes.

One more thing; our tears are actually very special to our Father in heaven. You want to know how I know this? Check this out:

You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book? (Psalm 56:8, NASB)

Did you know that? That each tear is precious to Him? He knows why we cry. He understands. He remembers. Let's not ever be ashamed to cry out to God with our tears. Even if we can't form the words to pray, let the tears flow and don't be apprehensive. He cares. Each tear matters.

I'm so glad to know, too, that one day all tears will be wiped away. Not one more will be shed. Until then, I will let my tears fall into His hands of love. It's a holy happening, and it's not insignificant in our walk with Him.

This was a special post today; the Spirit led me to this and I know there is someone who needed to be encouraged. Blessings to all who read here.

Please pray with me for a special couple who knew the joy of hearing a tiny heartbeat within the mother's womb, but who then were told there was no heartbeat to be heard anymore. Pray for them for healing and restoration of peace and joy.

If you have a request or a praise, I hope you will let us know so that we may pray with you.