Brokenness
and Tears
Source: http://www.annemurchison.com/brokenness.htm
An
unbroken person
cannot be trusted.
Gary
Rosberg
Henri Nouwen wrote in his book, The Return of the
Prodigal Son, that "it is often difficult to believe that there is
much to think, speak or write about other than brokenness".
Mark Buchanan wrote in his book Your God is Too
Safe, that there is one soil that usually withers pride. It is brokenness.
He goes on to write that broken- ness "molds our character closer to the
character of God than anything else. To experience defeat, disappointment,
loss—the raw ingredients of broken- ness—moves us closer to being like God than
victory and gain and fulfillment ever can."
J. C. Philpot wrote over 150 years ago that "There
is much presumption, pride, hypocrisy, deceit, delusion, formality,
superstition and self-righteousness to be purged out of the heart of God's
child.
"But all these things keep him low, mar his pride,
crush his self-righteousness, cut the locks of his presumption, stain his self
conceit, stop his boasting, preserve him from despising others, make him take
the lowest room, teach him to esteem others better than himself, drive him to
earnest prayer, fit him as an object of mercy, break to pieces his free will,
and lay him low at the feet of the Redeemer, as one to be saved by sovereign
grace alone!"
The catalysts for brokenness don’t have to be huge,
tragic or devastating, though sometimes they are. Suffering comes in all sizes
and shapes every day of our lives. And when it comes, we often bury the pain of
it somewhere deep inside us where it simmers and stews and gnaws away at our
peace, faith and health, turning our hearts even stonier, compounding our pride
and unbroken- ness layer by layer.
“Whenever
you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears,
it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling the
secret
of who you are, but more often than not of the mystery of where you have come
from and are summoning you to where you should go next.”
Frederick Buechner
Whistling in the Dark
The DNA of Sin
The Bible teaches that all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Like it or not, we are all born sinners, which
means we are all born unbroken. Yes, our DNA is infected with the sin of our
forefather Adam. The word that best describes this condition of unbrokenness is
pride. The word that best describes brokenness is humility.
We are all—every last one of us—more or less unbroken.
The Christian journey is one of God bringing us out of tree of knowledge trash
such as sinful, rule-based, self-righteous, self-sufficient, prideful
dependence upon our own strength, wisdom and knowledge into the tree of life
treasures of brokenness, humility, worship of and dependence upon Him. These
are God’s highest desires for all of His children, and His desires are always
what is best for us. They are highly prized by Him, and once we begin to
understand and bear the fruit of them, we will prize them highly too.
Tears—The Language of the Soul
Biblically, tears are an essential expression of
brokenness. They are God's provision for cleansing us of the unbrokenness that
hinders and sometimes destroys our spiritual, mental and physical health and
well being.
"Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and
givest them tears to drink in great measure" (Psalm 80:5).
Ken Gire wrote in Windows of the Soul, “In each tear
is distilled something of eternity, something of love and compassion and
tenderness, all things that originate in heaven and come to earth as a
sacrament to the soul, if only I am willing to take and to eat. The closest
communion with God comes, I believe, through the sacrament of tears. Just as
grapes are crushed to make wine and grain to make bread, so the elements of
this sacrament come from the crushing experiences of life.
“So much is distilled in our tears, not the least of
which is wisdom in living life. From my own tears I have learned that if you
follow your tears, you will find your heart. If you find your heart, you will
find what is dear to God, and if you find what is dear to God you will find the
answer to how you should live your life.”
Grief
is the one pain
that heals all others.
Grief is the most important
pain there is.
How People Grow
Henry Cloud and John
Townsend
Many Hebrew words for grieving, weeping and
lamentation actually mean “to distill”, which means to “separate and change
from one substance to another”. This word beautifully describes God’s renewing
work in the midst of our tears. In the life long metamorphosis of our souls,
God is continually transforming us from the sin-marred image of Adam into the
glorious image of Christ. The tears we pour out at the feet of Jesus, both
joyful and sad, are the distillation of God’s eternal work in our lives.
Tears are the language of the soul. When they are
turned toward God, they are never wasted nor shed in vain. Though often shunned
by man they are treasured by God. Psalm 56:8 says that God keeps our tears in a
bottle and writes each one in His book.
Tears—An Eternal Perspective
God considers our precious tears an offering. Exodus
22:29 urges that we not "delay to offer the first of [our] ripe fruits,
and of [our] liquors . . . ".
The primary meaning of the Hebrew word for
"liquors" is "tears". And we should not delay the offering
of them! They are put into His bottle and are written in His book. I can almost
see the fingers of God lovingly caressing each line in that weighty tome as He
ponders our every offering and sacrifice of brokenness—love letters straight
from our heart to His. Just let your heart ponder this for a moment. Our tears
are treasures in heaven, for they represent our every moment of surrender to
Him.
The great old theologian, Matthew Henry wrote of this
verse, "God has a bottle and a book for his people's tears, both those for
their sins and those for their afflictions. He observes them with compassion
and tender concern; he is afflicted in their afflictions, and knows their souls
in adversity. Paul was mindful of Timothy's tears (2 Timothy 1:4), and God will
not forget the sorrows of his people. God will comfort his people according to
the time wherein he has afflicted them, and give to those to reap in joy who
sowed in tears. What was sown a tear will come up a pearl."
Tears:
the best gift of God
to suffering Man.
John
Keble (1792-1866)
“For Thou does not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I
would give it; Thou art not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God
are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not
despise”(Psalm
51:16-17).
The word “broken” used in Psalm 51:17 translates
“crushed, broken in pieces, torn, and brought to birth!” The word “contrite”
means “collapsed physically or mentally”. These two words describe a soul in
devastated brokenness. From an eternal perspective, these are the sacrifices of
God. This is not exactly something the fittest, the toughest and the slickest
want to hear, but it truly is good news. Like freshly tilled soil, a broken and
surrendered heart is the perfect environment for God to bring it to birth.
It is a narrow way that leads to life (Matthew 7:14).
The word “narrow” means “to suffer tribulation” and “pressure”. Like a baby
coming through the narrow way of the birth canal, the pressures of our sorrows
are actually meant to bring our hearts to birth, to life, by the power of God’s
grace.
Paul’s writings bring light to the phenomenon of a
heart brought to birth. In Galatians 4, he wrote that he was “once again in
labor that Christ might be formed” in us (v. 11). This word “labor” is from the
root word meaning “to lament and mourn”. Jesus used the metaphor of laboring in
childbirth to describe the weeping and lamentation His disciples would endure
upon His death (John 16:20-21).
The seasons of crushing brokenness we all endure are
like birth pangs. They bring our hearts to birth as we surrender to God in the
midst of them. Great or small, our brokenness is the incubator of God’s
overshadowing grace as He forms the tangible reality of the character of Christ
within us. This is one of the most important and misunderstood spiritual
dynamics in the Word of God.
The Book of Psalms is the holy of holies of the Bible.
Much of it is an intimate glimpse into the journal of and memorial to the
tearful prayers of the broken- hearted. It stands as a testimony to God’s love
and faithfulness to those who cry out to Him for help.
We
need never be ashamed
of our tears,
for they are rain upon
the blinding dust of earth,
overlying our hard hearts.
Charles
Dickens
(1812-1870)
“Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that
are mad against me are sworn against me. For I have eaten ashes like bread, and
mingled my drink with weeping” (Psalm 102:8-9).
“Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am pining away. Heal
me, O Lord, for my bones are dismayed. And my soul is greatly dismayed; But
Thou, O Lord— how long? Return, O Lord, rescue my soul; Save me because of Thy
loving- kindness. For there is no mention of Thee in death; In Sheol who will
give Thee thanks? I am weary with my sighing; Every night I make my bed
swim, I dissolve my couch with my tears. My eye has wasted away with grief; It
has become old because of all my adversaries. Depart from me all you who do
iniquity, For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has
heard my supplication, The Lord receives my prayer. All my enemies shall be
ashamed and greatly dismayed; They shall turn back, they shall suddenly be
ashamed” (Psalm 6:2-10).
Psalm 84 is one of my favorite psalms. It is full of
promise for the broken- hearted.
“Blessed—happy, fortunate [to be envied]—is the man
whose strength is in You; in whose heart are the highways to
The Preacher in Ecclesiastes also wrote about the
importance and power of tears.
“It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go
to a house of feasting [rejoicing], Because that is the end of every man, And
the living take it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, For when a face is
sad a heart may be happy. The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning,
While the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure” (Ecclesiastes 7:2-4).
Tearful Prayers
Henri Nouwen wrote in his marvelous book, The
Return of the Prodigal Son, “There are so few mourners left in the world.
But grief is the discipline of the heart that sees the sin of the world, and
knows itself to be the sorrowful price of freedom without which love cannot
bloom. I am beginning to see that much of praying is grieving”.
Hebrews 5:7-8 tell us that the days of His flesh (His
life), Jesus offered his supplications and prayers to His Father with loud
crying and tears.
I am
beginning to see
that much of praying
is grieving.
Henri
Nouwen
(1932-1996)
Hannah poured out her soul to God in prayer over her
barrenness. 1 Samuel 1:10 tells us she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed
unto the Lord, and wept sore. In verse 15, she said, “ . . . I am a woman of a
sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured
out my soul before the Lord”. She later gave birth to Samuel, a great prophet,
priest of God and answered prayer to a mother who poured out her tears before
the Lord.
Charles Spurgeon preached that, "No prayer will
ever prevail with God more surely than a liquid petition, which, being
distilled from the heart, trickles from the eye, and waters the cheek. 'Jesus
wept' to teach us how to baptize our prayers unto God in a wave of heart
grief."
Bitterness and mourning are synonymous in many Hebrew
words. Bitterness is an important reason to weep in prayer. The natural
bitterness of pain and grief becomes the sin of bitterness when we do not
mourn.
Jeremiah is often referred to as the weeping prophet.
He wept in prayer over the sin and pain of God’s people.
“For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt;
I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. Is there no balm in
Micah wept in prayer for God’s people. “Therefore I
will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like
the dragons, and mourning as the owls. For her wound is incurable; for it is
come unto
Oftentimes
a poor
broken-hearted one bends his knee,
but can only utter his wailing
in the language of sighs and tears.
Oswald Chambers
(1874-1917)
“Being in agony, Jesus prayed” to His Father in
surrender to the cross in
“And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of
the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of
the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the
midst thereof” (Ezekiel 9:4).
It is written in the Psalms that tears are like seed
and weeping is like the sowing of that seed in prayer.
“Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful
shouting. He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, Shall
indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm
126:5-6).
Sheaves are the answers to our prayers, the fruit of
our labor in prayer. Rachel labored in prayer with lamentation and bitter
weeping. God promised her that her labor would be rewarded.
“Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah,
lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be
comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith the Lord; Refrain
thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work [labor] shall
be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the
enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall
come again to their own border.” (Jeremiah 31:15-17).
Prayer
is
the falling of a tear.
Oswald
Chambers
(1874-1917)
Oswald Chambers wrote of tearful prayers in My
Utmost for His Highest:
“Here is comfort for the distressed soul. ‘Thou
puttest my tears into thy bottle,’ implies that they are caught as they flow .
. . The suppliant, whose fears prevent his words, will be well understood by
the Most High. He may only look up with misty eye; but ‘prayer is the falling
of a tear’. He regards not high looks and lofty words; He cares not for the
pomp and pageantry of kings; He listens not to the swell of martial music; He
regards not the triumph and pride of man; but wherever there is a heart big
with sorrow, or a lip quivering with agony, or a deep groan, or a penitential
sigh, the heart of Jehovah is open; He marks it down in the registry of His
memory; He puts our prayers, like rose leaves, between the pages of His book of
remembrance, and when the volume is opened at last, there shall be a precious
fragrance springing up therefrom.”
Tears of Repentance
If Satan could blind the eyes of God’s people to just
one thing, of course it would be that intimate place of greater grace—the place
of humility, repentance and sanctification (James 4:6-10). For the most part,
the church today lives in the world of dry-eyed confession of sin, a mere
decision of the will instead of the fruit and tender conviction birthed in
godly sorrow.
God
will never plant the seed of his life upon the soil of a hard, unbroken spirit.
He will only plant that seed where
the conviction of His Spirit
has brought brokenness,
where the soil has been watered
with the tears of repentance
as well as the tears of joy.
Alan
Redpath
(1907-1989)
The woman who broke the alabaster box and poured the
ointment over Jesus’s head in Luke 7:37-50, gives us an excellent look at faith
and repentance at work in the midst of weeping. The word “weeping” used in
verse 38 means “sobbing and wailing aloud”.
Mark's account (Mark 14:3-9) describes the process of
brokenness to be like "an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very
precious . . . and she brake the box, and poured it on his head” (Mark 14:3).
There are some wonderful metaphors in Mark 14:3.
First, the breaking of the alabaster box was an
outward symbol of the divine work God was about to do in her own heart. The box
is a type of pure heart surrendering to God in brokenness. Thayer’s Greek
lexicon says the ointment poured out was myrrh, which, in the Hebrew, also
means mourning, bitterness and tears. Myrrh was commonly used when burying the
dead. Myrrh was also used as a pain reliever.
Symbolically, mourning and myrrh represent dying to
ourselves; and mourning and dying to ourselves are also great pain relievers.
Second, the word spike- nard consists of two Greek words which mean spike and
nard. The nard is the head or spike of a fragrant East Indian plant belonging
to the valeriana family. This plant yields a juice of delicious odor.
Webster's says valeriana is an herb which has strong,
powerful medicinal virtues which both cleanse and calm. This too is symbolic of
the inner work God does in our hearts through our brokenness, which releases a
sweet aroma to the Lord. And it both cleanses and calms.
Third, the word "spike" means "genuine,
unadulterated”. To be genuine is to be true, authentic, real and without
pretense. Something unadulterated is pure. There is nothing purer than the
nakedness of a repentant heart. We are never more real than in these moments,
and the more broken we become, the more authentic we are. Our conscious and
unconscious pretensions and defenses melt away, and we greet the world “naked”
and unashamed. No more in need of them, our cherished fig leaves lie forsaken
and forgiven in the puddle of our prized and precious tears. We soar upon the
healing wings of Christ’s resurrec- tion. More and more of who God created us
to be emerges from the dust and ashes of repentance. This is what it means to
be “real” and “genuine”.
The heart of the woman who broke the alabaster box was
laid bear in the sacrifice of her broken heart and contrite spirit. She was not
self-conscious or concerned about what others were thinking. Neither was Jesus.
Without guile, she poured out her soul and her sins in repentance at His feet.
And fourth, the word “spike” is from a root word
meaning faith and truth. Obviously, mourning is a great act of faith and also a
great truth, because Jesus’s final words to her were, “Your faith has saved
[delivered, healed and made] you [whole]; go in peace” (Luke 7:50 NAS).
After she broke the alabaster box, “she stood at his
feet behind him weeping [sobbing and wailing], and began to wash his feet with
her tears” (Luke 7:38).
This woman’s tears washed the feet of Jesus, and so do
ours. Jesus called this act of mourning and repentance not only an act of faith
but a manifestation of great love (Luke 7:47).
“Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many,
are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same
loveth little.”
Gerald Sittser wrote in A Grace Disguised that “the
choice to love requires the courage to grieve”. When we love, our hearts will
be broken. If our hearts are not broken, we cannot love. Love for the Lord will
bring brokenness, repent- ance and forgiveness of sin. In this process we are freed
to love all the more, because we are freed from those things that hinder our
loving.
If
every call to Christ
and His righteousness
is a call to suffering,
the converse is equally true—
every call to suffering
is a call to Christ,
a promotion,
an invitation to come higher.
Charles Brent
In Luke 7:39 (NAS) a Pharisee objected to the weeping,
wailing, repentant woman—scorning both her and the Lord.
“Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this,
he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort
of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a sinner.”
Exactly! She was a sinner in the throes of repentance
at the feet of her Lord. The Pharisees would never be touched by her
uncleanness, not in their hearts nor on their heads or feet! If they had only
seen Who Christ was they would have recognized themselves as sinners and thrown
themselves at His feet with loud crying and tears too! Unfortunately their own
acts of repentance were not at all from a broken heart but were done only to be
noticed by men. They were nothing more than a vain show (Matthew 7:16-17).
The Brokenness of Repentance
Thomas Watson (1557-1592) wrote of repentance, “Faith
lives in a broken heart. True faith is always in a heart bruised for sin. They,
therefore, whose hearts were never touched for sin, have no faith. If a
physician should tell us there was an herb that would help us against all
infections, but it always grows in a watery place; if we should see an herb
like it in colour, leaf, smell, blossom, but growing upon a rock, we should
conclude that it was the wrong herb. So saving faith always grows in a heart
humbled for sin, in a weeping eye and a tearful conscience.”
The Great Trilogy
There are three passages of scripture I call The Great
Trilogy. These scrip- tures are my favorites in the epistles, perhaps in the
entire Bible, because in them I discovered the truth of walking in grace and
humility. Not that I am always successful, but these passages chart my course
in my walk with God. Viewing them through the prism of brokenness and God’s
gift of repentance gives a new lease on life.
The
Puritans actually
called themselves repenters
rather than Christians.
Bob
Rosberg
The first of the three is 2 Corinthians 7:10. This
single verse yields a storehouse of insight into the mystery of the process of
repentance and transformation.
“For the sorrow that is according to the will of God
produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation [healing, wholeness
and deliverance]
. . . ”.
Godly sorrow produces repentance! Repentence is not a
decision but a fruit—
a result of godly sorrow. And this repentance leads to salvation, which is a
big word pregnant with promise. It means healing, wholeness and deliverance.
So! Repentance is a miraculous and progressive
transforming experience in the soul of man.
Repeating what I wrote earlier, “sorrow” as used in
this verse means mourning and grief. This one verse is the pattern of
repentance found throughout the entire Bible.
"Humility
is the rarest and most beautiful of graces.
Humility is the very first letter
in the alphabet of Christianity."
J.
C. Ryle
1816 - 1900
The second passage in the Great Trilogy is James
4:6-10. In these verses, James tells us precisely what humbling is. Humbling is
mourning. Mourning is humbling. In almost every use of the word “humble” in the
Bible it is used in the context of mourning and repentance. It is the condition
of a heart in full surrender to the Lord, not just because sin is devastating
our lives but becasue we don’t have any answers for or see any end to our pain.
We only know we are suffering. The truth is we won’t ever find answers or see
an end to our misery without the humility and brokenness of repentance.
Let’s follow this word “humble” through the next few
verses.
“But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, ‘God
is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).
The important message in this verse is that God gives
grace, even a greater measure of grace to the humble—to those who mourn.
“Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will
flee from you” (James 4:7).
When we submit to God and resist the devil he will
flee from us. Submission to God always precedes resisting the devil.
Living
Christianity
is making one’s life
an exercise of humility,
repentance and heavenly affection.
William
Law (1686-1761)
In James 4:1-2, James was addressing double-minded
believers who were warring among themselves over power, pleasure and riches. James
4:8-10 is a clarion call to them to repent of their sins. Here again we see the
Biblical pattern for repentance.
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded” (v.
8).
“Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be
turned into mourn- ing, and your joy to gloom” (v. 9).
“Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He
will exalt you”
(v. 10).
Verse nine is the pivotal verse in this passage. It is
a verse many of us slide right on by, because it makes us uncomfortable—very
uncomfortable. It is the one, however, we need the most, because it is the one
most lacking in our lives today. Verse 9 clarifies verses 8 and 10. It tells us
that God cleanses our hands and purifies our hearts in our brokenness—in
misery, mourning and weeping (v. 8). And it tells us that brokenness is
humbling ourselves before Him (v. 10).
The word “humble” means “to depress, or to press
oneself down, to be humil- iated in one’s heart and to bring oneself low”. As
we bow lower the Lord lifts us higher. As we decrease, He increases. All of
this takes place in the midst of “being miserable, mourning and weeping”. This
is the brokenness of repent- ance. Each time we humble ourselves in this way,
God’s greater grace moves in our hearts to make us more whole—to heal, deliver
and transform us more.
In Colossians 3:10 Paul expressed the same notion of
humbling in different words. He wrote, “put on the new self who is being
renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of God”. The words “to put
on” mean “to sink into” in the Greek. In the same way, we put on the armor of
God—by sinking into it. By going lower. It is again the same Greek word Jesus
used in Luke 24:49 when he commanded His disciples to “stay in the city until
you are endued with power from on high”. We are “endued” with power from on
high by sinking into it. There is no mechanical way to do this. The Lord does
it as we humbly bow low before Him. This occurs not in strength but in brokenness.
God’s
life in us
expresses itself as God’s life,
not as human life
trying to be godly.
Oswald
Chambers
(1874-1917)
This is the very same message of Paul’s words in 2
Corinthians 12:9:
And he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you,
for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather
boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore
I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with
persecutions with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then am
I strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NAS).
Philippians 2:5-8 is the third passage of the trilogy.
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a
servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a
man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross”.
The mind of Christ is forsaking our personal image,
agenda, pursuit of power and even our very lives—to be humbled—to become
uncompromisingly com- mitted to dying to ourselves. We see this mind in a
repentant David when he proclaimed that he would not make a sacrifice that cost
him nothing (2 Samuel 24:24). We no longer sacrifice the flesh of bulls and
goats. We now offer the living sacrifice of ourselves—our flesh—the primary
roadblock to the eternal work of Christ in our lives (John 6:63).
When
the means
are autonomous
they are deadly.
Charles
Williams
Repentance from Dead Works
“Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of
Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of
repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God” (Hebrews 6:1).
Indeed, the God-inspired writer of the Book of Hebrews
qualified the first of the elementary principles of God to be repentance, not
just from sin as we so often think of sin, but from dead works. These dead
works spring up as conscious and unconsious acts of sin as well as those Holy
Spirit-less things we are all prone to do to earn the approval of God and men.
They are works Henry Blackaby would say were not initiated and empowered by
God. They are rabbit trails that sidetrack us from the true works of God in and
through us. As we become willing to be broken in repentance from our dead
works, God will help us discern between living truths and lifeless
religion—from His direction for us instead of our own.
We no longer sacrifice the flesh of bulls and goats.
Under the New Covenant, we offer the living sacrifice of ourselves—our
flesh—the primary roadblock to the eternal work of Christ in and through our
lives (Romans 12:1-2).
"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh
profits nothing . . . " (John 6:63 NAS).
In Diary of God, Ron Rose wrote that God always
asks for whatever competes for our hearts to be laid on the altar as he seeks
the best for our future, our growth and our relationship with Him. William Law
wrote of the cross and dying to self over three centuries ago, “Receive every
inward and outward trouble, every disappointment, pain, uneasiness, temptation,
darkness and desolation, with both thy hands, as a true opportunity and blessed
occasion of dying to self, and entering into a fuller fellowship with thy
self-denying, suffering Savior”.
In Philippians 2:12-13, Paul tells us we die to self
in the humility of brokenness as we take up our cross and follow Jesus. This is
the mind of Christ. Let it also be in us.
“ . . . work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure.”
“Working out our own salvation” seems inconsistent
with “God at work to will and do according to His good pleasure”. At first glance
these two statements actually seem to conflict with one another. In the light
of brokenness there is no conflict at all.
We
cannot cleanse our own hands
or purify our own hearts.
Neither can we work out
our own salvation!
The truth is we cannot do it. In the very blunt words
of Charles Spurgeon, “To wash and dress a corpse is a far different thing from
making it alive: man can do the one, God alone can do the other . . . If there
be one stitch in the celestial garment of our righteousness which we are to
insert ourselves, then we are lost; but this is our confidence, the Lord who
began will perfect. He has done it all, must do it all, and will do it all. Our
confidence must not be in what we have done, nor in what we have resolved to
do, but entirely in what the Lord will do.”
Try as we may, we cannot cleanse our own hands or
purify our own hearts (Jas. 4:8), neither can we work out our own salvation
(Philippians 2:12) . . . So what does this passage mean then?
The
expression
of Christian character
is not good doing,
but God-likeness.
Oswald
Chambers
(1874-1917)
In James 4:8-10, we learned that our hearts are
cleansed, and our hands are purified by God through brokenness. The same is
true with Philippians 2:12-13. We work out our salvation with fear and
trembling—that is, in brokenness.
Our labor is to give up laboring in our own strength
and come before God in fear and trembling. The words “fear” and “trembling” are
found in numerous Hebrew and Greek words for mourning. They are words of
weakness, meekness, mourning and brokenness. They are words found in the
original biblical languages for childbirth. They are also often used in the
scriptures themselves of those in the great tribulation of childbirth, a
commonly used biblical metaphor for mourning. And they are words of reverence
for God. All of these are congruent with the humbling experience of repentance.
It is in this broken condition of heart that God’s grace works to will and do
according to his good pleasure and purpose. Each time we sink in humility and
brokenness, we are more renewed into the image of God.
Like the prelude of a symphony, mourning is the
preparation of the heart for repentance. It is the humbling of oneself. And
mourning, humbling, repentance, weakness, brokenness and dying to self are all
part of one process of taking up our crosses and following the Lord in his
death and resurrection. In the midst of it, God’s greater grace hovers over us
like a mother hen hatching her chicks, and we are transformed. The death of sin
is replaced with more death to self. The life of the flesh is replaced with
more of the manifested life of the Lord Jesus.
Charles Spurgeon’s stirring words press our hearts and
eyes onward and upward toward the cross. “Well may we court trial or even death
itself if we shall thereby be aided to make glad Immanuel’s heart. O that our
hearts were crushed to atoms if only by such bruising our sweet Lord Jesus
could be glorified”.
Heart-rending
is divinely wrought
and solemnly felt.
Charles
H. Spurgeon
(1834-1892)
Radical? Well may we realize how modernism and
post-modernism have eroded the personal faith and theology of so many when we
read the heart- piercing words of John Bunyan written after being released from
twelve years of prison in 1672. Quoting 2 Corinthians 1:9 where Paul wrote, “We
had this sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God that raiseth the dead,” Bunyan wrote. “By this scripture I was made
to see that if ever I would suffer rightly, I must first pass a death sentence
upon every thing that can be properly called a thing of this life, even to
reckon myself, my wife, my children, my health, my enjoyment, and all, as dead
to me, and myself dead to them. The second was to live upon God that is
invisible.” John Bunyan understood the importance of God’s call to take up his
own cross—His call to brokenness and surrender. He gave it not a second
thought.
John Piper wrote in a sermon entitled To Live Upon
God That Is Invisible— Suffering and Service in the Life of John Bunyan,
“Bunyan discovered that, if we are to suffer rightly, we must die not only to
sin, but to the innocent and precious things of this world, including family
and freedom. We must ‘live upon God that is invisible’”
Brokenness is a lifetime of seminal moments with God
as He brings our hearts to birth, ever forming more of His image and character
in us. Choice and will power have little if anything to do with this process.
Our only real choice is to recognize our inability to make eternal changes in
ourselves and bow brokenly in complete surrender to the love and mercy of God.
Certainly the point begs to be made, and well it
should, that obedience to God means overriding our own will to make godly
choices. And making right decisions is essential to order and civility in a
family, a culture and one’s life. Without the rule of law, death, destruction
and chaos prevail. Life will not go well for us without obedience to God. But
we must never confuse making right decisions with the wonder and mystery of
God’s ways in brokenness, repent- ance and transformation. God desires raw
obedience less than he does our surrender to His will for our lives.
This is pretty provocative stuff. The sacrifice of God
is a crushed and broken heart. Misery, mourning and weeping are ways we
humiliate our hearts in repentance. The power of Christ is perfected in our
weakness and not our strength. With a message like this Paul would find many
hearts closed to him today. God’s ways are not our ways.
Mourning, Humbling, Grace and Transformation
True repentance is a rending of the heart. It is the
fruit of the brokenness of mourning, not mere regret for sin. “‘Yet even now,’
declares the Lord, ‘Return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping
and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments.’ Now return to the
Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding
in lovingkindness, and relenting of evil” (Joel 2:13).
Character
in a saint
means the disposition
of Jesus Christ
persistently manifested.
Oswald
Chambers
(1874-1917)
Charles Spurgeon wrote that “Heart-rending is divinely
wrought and solemnly felt. It is a secret grief which is personally
experienced, not in mere form, but as a deep, soul moving work of the Holy
Spirit upon the inmost heart of each believer. It is not a matter to be merely
talked of and believed in, but keenly and sensitively felt in every living
child of the living God. It is powerfully humiliating, and completely
sin-purging; but then it is sweetly preparative for those gracious consolations
which proud, unhumbled spirits are unable to receive; and it is distinctly
discriminating, for it belongs to the elect of God, and to them alone.”
Misery, mourning and weeping loosen our grip on this
world with all of its temptations and trials. Each time we let go, we die a
little more to ourselves, and a little more of the reality of what is already
ours—the eternal realm of rest and resurrection—becomes manifested in our
hearts. There is nothing more comforting than melting into the arms of Jesus in
tears of repentance.
To
weep
is to make less
the depths of grief.
William
Shakespeare
(1564-1616)
Tribulation Produces the Character of Christ
As sincere Christians, most of us are trying to be
godly without understanding the ways of God in suffering. The character of
Christ is worked out in us by God through the seasons of tribulation we
encounter in life, not by any virtue, effort or good intentions of our own.
Romans 5:3 tells us that tribulation, or pressure and
suffering, works patience in us. Patience in the Greek means the ability “to
stay under” the pressure of suffering “with hope”.
Our natural tendency is to run from pain or drown in
it, and there are many dangerous ways to do this. Drugs, alcohol, gambling and
risk-taking are things that quickly come to mind. Illicit sexual dalliances fit
in this category. Though they seem less malevolent, such things as work,
television, shopping, food, talking on the phone and exercise, when taken to
excess, are ways we run from our pain and miss the grace and mercy of God.
Blaming others for our problems is something most of us do. This too is a way
of running from pain and missing God’s grace. The only way we can be patient
and stop running is to be broken by the pressures of our trials before the
Lord.
Paul goes on to say in Romans 5:4 that patience, the
ability to remain under pressure with hope and faith, works character in us.
This character is not the natural good character of man but the supernatural
character of God, created by His power alone. He is also the source of our hope
and faith.
Oswald Chambers wrote, “The expression of Christian
character is not good doing, but God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has
transformed you within, you will exhibit divine characteristics in your life,
not good human characteristics. God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s
life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a Christian is that
the supernatural is made natural in him by the grace of God, and the experience
of this works out in the practical details of life, not merely in times of
communion with God.”
It is one thing to feel holy and pious when we are
alone with God in the prayer closet. It is, however, something at which
believers are all too adept. Our real holiness and piety, however, are proven
among our family, friends and com- munity. Character is refined and proven in
the furnace of everyday living—in the day-to-day frustrations and struggles of
life!
“When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into
your lives, my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as
friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the
quality of endurance [the ability to stay in suffering with hope until God
accomplishes His purposes]. But let the process go on until that endurance is
fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character, men
of integrity with no weak spots” (James 1:2-4 The Phillips Version).
It’s
such a secret place,
the land of tears.
Antoine
de Saint-Exupery
(1900-1944)
Tears of Loss
Gerald (Jerry) Sittser, associate professor of
religion at
Nicholas Wolterstorff, a philosopher who teaches at
Yale University, lost a son in a mountain-climbing accident. In his book,
Lament for a Son, he tenderly wrote “In the valley of suffering, despair and
bitterness are brewed. But there also character is made. The valley of
suffering is the vale of soul-making”.
Few of us face the catastrophic losses that Jerry
Sittser has endured. Though we fear them, losses come to all of us in one form
and size or another. We will either be destroyed by them or we will be
transformed by them. It depends upon whether we bow low in the valley of
suffering and allow it to become the place of our soul-making.
God has gifted us with faith and tears. His loving
presence is with us to ease us through the black tunnels of despair. As we
emerge from the darkness, we discover that God has enlarged our soul.
The
edges of God
are tragedy.
The depths of God
are joy and life.
Marjorie
Hewitt Suchocki
Betrayal and loss could have blinded Joseph to his
destiny and the destiny of
God not only permitted but directed every step of
Joseph’s life. His brothers’ jealousy, his enslavement, Potiphar’s wrath and
the prison of abandonment were all part of God’s divine preparation and plan
for Joseph’s reign over Pharaoh’s kingdom. In Joseph’s own words to his
brothers years later, “It was not you who sent me here, but God” (Genesis
45:5). Those twenty-plus years of loss and grief were Joseph’s valley of
soul-making.
We are only given flashes of Joseph’s brokenness. As
God draws back the curtain to allow us a few glances, we see him reuniting with
his family in loud crying and tears.
“Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them
that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there
stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And
he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard” (Genesis
45:1-2).
“And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and
wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck. Moreover he kissed all his brethren, and
wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him” (Genesis
45:14-15).
“And Joseph prepared his chariot and went up to Goshen
to meet his father Israel; as soon as he appeared before him, he fell on his
neck and wept on his neck a long time” (Genesis 46:29).
A type of Christ in the Old Testament, Joseph was a
man acquainted with sorrows and he became a man of great character because of
them. He wept both tears of loss and tears of joy as he journeyed through the
valley of sorrow and soul-making.
The
Bible
was written in tears
and to tears
it yields its treasures.
Oswald
Chambers
(1874-1917)
Reading, Weeping and Praying God’s Word
The Bible I have used for many years has been a source
of light for me in some very dark places and times. God has spoken words of
comfort through it when I desperately needed them. I have a relationship with
my Bible that only minimally takes second place to my relationship with the
Lord. And I actually spend more time with my Bible than I do any human being.
Without it I would not have much of a relationship with the Lord or anyone
else.
The pages of my Bible are not only stained with my
tears but with the tears of others. In the late eighties, I spoke on the
subject of brokenness to a women’s group. After praying, I sat down as the
leader of the group stood to close the meeting. I don’t even remember what she
said, but I do recall that she was weeping. When I returned to the podium to
pick up my Bible, I was stunned to see the Phillips Version of scriptures I had
carefully written in the margin of my New American Standard Bible nearly
obliterated by her tears. They are verses I cite every time I teach on
suffering or brokenness (James 1:2-4). And each time I do, I am touched by the
teardrops she unintentionally left with me. They will always be precious to me.
The
tears of John,
which were his liquid prayers,
were so far as he was concerned,
the sacred keys by which
the sealed book was opened.
(Rev.
5:4)
Charles
H. Spurgeon
(1834-1892)
So many times I have turned to the scriptures in tears
for words of comfort and encouragement. The verses the Lord has given me are
dated in the margins of my Bible. When friends call to encourage me with
scriptures, I put their names and the date by the verses. Not only has my Bible
become a love letter to me from the Lord; it has also become many love letters
to me from precious friends and even a few strangers who, in times of trouble,
have called and written me over the years. Some have gone on to be with the
Lord, and their words of encouragement remain with me. My tearful prayers on
behalf of all the generations of my family, even those yet to be born, are that
my Bible will become a testimony of encouragement to them.
Many times the Lord has drawn me to His Word in tears
and prayer over the sorrows of others. Friends. Family. Abused and starving
children. Racism. The seemingly forsaken people of distant lands. The lost. Our
nation. The news. Praying God’s Word in tears over people and difficult
circumstances is a source of constant consolation to me.
The Lord breaks bread for those who are broken bread.
John Bunyan was imprisoned for twelve years because he would not promise he
would not preach the gospel. His imprisonment caused him great suffering,
heightened in intensity because it also brought tremendous hardship to his
already needy family. In the midst of great agony of soul, God revealed great
treasures in the Word of God to him—treasures he would never have seen any
other way. He wrote in Grace Abounding to Sinners, “I never had in all my life
so great an inlet into the Word of God as now [in prison]. The Scriptures that
I saw nothing in before are made in this place to shine upon me. Jesus Christ
also was never more real and apparent than now. Here I have seen him and felt
him indeed . . . I have seen [such things] here that I am persuaded I shall
never while in this world be able to express . . . with one scripture after
another how [God] strengthened me against all; insomuch that I have often said,
were it lawful I could pray for greater trouble for the greater comfort’s
sake”.
Charles Spurgeon wrote of John in Revelation 5:4, that
“He wept much. The tears of John, which were his liquid prayers, were so far as
he was concerned, the sacred keys by which the sealed book was opened”.
In searching the scriptures, the Lord has spoken to me
through my tears about the circumstances of my life and the lives of others.
More importantly, as He guides me and comforts and stills my heart about
struggles and difficulties I face, He also profoundly unfolds His Word to
reveal more of Himself, building a deeper trust into my life for Him as His
Holy Spirit gives a greater under- standing of Truth. As Oswald Chambers has written
so wisely, “The Bible was written in tears and to tears it yields its
treasures”.
God’s Tears in Heaven
When most of us think of God, the last thing we
consider is Him weeping in brokenness. This is because we hold an incomplete
view of God and a distorted view of the ways of God in suffering. The
Scriptures give us glimpses into the heavenlies. In a few of these brief peeks,
we are allowed to see God experiencing and expressing intense brokenness,
sorrow and grief over those He loves.
"Therefore will I [the Lord] howl [make a
boisterous wailing tone] for
"Therefore I [the Lord] will bewail with the
weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O
Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy
harvest is fallen. And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful
field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be
shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made
their vintage shouting to cease. Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp
for
"In all their afflictions [anguish, distress,
sorrow, tribulation] he was afflicted
. . . " (Isaiah 63:9).
Scripture
often reveals
a meek, lowly, broken God—
a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief.
When we think of God, for some reason most of us
picture a rather serious and stoic Sovereign seated upon a grand and imposing
throne. Or we believe God to be One waiting to strike us with lightning over
every jot and tittle. But Scripture often reveals a meek, lowly, broken God—a
man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3).
"How often did they provoke him in the
wilderness, and grieve [pain] him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and
tempted God, and limited [grieved, pained] the Holy One of
"And they that escape of you shall remember me
[the Lord] among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I
am broken [brokenhearted, crushed, hurt, broken up] with their whorish heart .
. . " (Ezekile 6:9).
"How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I
deliver thee,
Love is reason enough for tears, and God is consummate
love. He is the Head and we are His body. We are one with Him, and He is One
with us. He feels the sting of our every wound and weeps with us through every
pang of our hearts.
Jesus’s Tears on Earth
Jesus, God incarnate, WAS the man of sorrows. Isaiah
53:3, “He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows [pain], and
acquainted with grief . . . ”.
Hebrews 5:7-8, “In the days of His flesh, [Jesus]
offered by both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One
able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He
was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”
Reading these and other similar passages of scripture
is so fascinating! The Bible is filled with the gut-wrenching sounds of grief
and pain. They are never more evident than in the passages where God expresses His
pain. Loud crying, wailing, roaring, groaning, shrieking and overflowing tears
are just a few of the ways the Bible reveals God's many expressions of pain.
Should we not be following His example?
The answer to this question is so obvious. When most
of us need to cry, our pride and unbrokenness show up big time. We stifle our
pain, cover our faces, swallow our tears, hold our breath and choke back
our sobs and screams. In doing so, we stifle both the natural and spiritual
healing, sanctifying process graciously provided for us by God Himself.
The word emotion means "to move out," and
that's what we must do with our pain to begin the God-ordained walk to freedom.
We must move it out of us, and the way that happens is through giving sound to
it. When we laugh, we don't bob our heads up and down and open our mouth
gapingly without the "sound" of laughter rolling out. In the same
way, when emotional or physical pain stirs within us, we need to let our mouths
open wide and wail, roar, groan, sigh and cry out loud. Cry as Jesus did with
loud crying and tears. If tears don't come easily for you, find a private place
and try screaming, shrieking, roaring and groaning. Eventually the dam you have
strived so futilely to construct will break and the tears will come. If you are
afraid, as so many people are, that once you begin to let go you will never
stop, set a timer and, even if you don't want to, stop when it goes off. You
will learn that you can do this. Mourning is God's gift to an unbroken world!
Go ahead. Give up, open up and let go!
God
is a suffering sovereign
who feels the sorrow of the world.
Gerald
Sittser
Hebrews 2:18, “For in that He Himself has suffered,
being tempted [tested], He is able to aid those who are tempted [tested].”
Luke 22:44, “And being in agony He was praying very
fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the
ground.”
Mark 14:33, “And He took with Him Peter and James and
John, and began to be very distressed and troubled. And He said to them, ‘My
soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.”
God could not exempt Himself from suffering and tears.
To do so would mean denying Who He Is. One cannot truly love without
vulnerability—the willing- ness to be wounded and broken by love. It was this
extraordinary attribute of vulnerability that led Him to sacrifice himself upon
a cruel and wonderful cross for the sins of those who do not love Him.
Vulnerability and brokenness are high and holy virtues to be hungrily
cultivated by those who are called by His wonderful name. The unsearchable
riches of Christ are their matchless reward.
Tears of Worship
The word for grace in the Hebrew means to bend or
stoop down, to conde- scend, to bow low in kindness to an inferior. It also
means to lament. This Hebrew word describes the incredible humility of the
Almighty God. In His grace and Father’s heart He bows low in kindness to us His
inferiors, to weep with us when we weep and to rejoice with us when we rejoice.
Charles Spurgeon wrote that “this is God's making Himself little which is the
cause of our being made great. We are so little, that if God should manifest
His greatness without condescension, we should be trampled under His feet; but
God, who must stoop to view the skies, and bow to see what angels do, turns His
eye yet lower, and looks to the lowly and contrite, and makes them great.”
To
exempt Himself
from suffering,
God would have to deny
Who He Is.
“Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on
high, Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the
earth! He raises up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the
dung-hill; That he may set him with princes, even with the princes of the
people” (Psalm 113:5-8).
As God “makes Himself little”, we can only prostrate
ourselves before Him in brokenness, acknowledging our smallness in His holy
presence.
The word worship in the Hebrew also means to
“depress”, to “prostrate oneself”, “to bow down”. It is very similar to the
word “humble”and the word “grace”. We saw it in the mourning of repentance
(James 4:6-10). We saw it in the putting on of the new man and the putting off
of the old man. (Colossians 3:9-10). We see it in the bowing low of God in His
grace toward us. We see it in God humbling Himself (Psalm 113:5-8). And now we
see it in the word “wor- ship”. If we are to be made like Him, we must humble
ourselves. To be like Him is to “be” humble—to be broken.
We simply cannot get away from the act of bowing low
before the Lord. It is the place of God’s grace, power and authority. When we
brokenly draw near to our Beloved, we enter within the veil to deservedly bathe
His feet with our tears of worship, reverence and love.
Part or all of my prayer and praise times are spent in
worship and tears of love, peace, joy and gratitude for the Lord’s beauty and
faithfulness. It is a rare time in church when tears do not spill down my
cheeks in love and gratefulness as I unite my heart and voice with my brothers
and sisters in worship to the Lord. In our deepest pain and greatest
brokenness, the Lord is mercifully present as we humble ourselves before Him.
The woman who washed the feet of Jesus with wailing, sobbing and tears
certainly taught us that a heart turned toward God in brokenness prevails over
great sorrow. When we bow low before the Lord, we find ourselves lost in the
wonder of Him as we enter into a time of deep worship, communion and
consolation. Peace and joy overtake our grief.
Worship
starts
with a broken heart.
Calvin
Miller
Mourning to Joy
“There is a time to weep and a time to laugh; A time
to mourn and a time to dance [rejoice].”
So writes the Preacher in Ecclesiastes 3:4. All the
seasons of our spiritual lives are important to our growth and maturity. After
reading all this information about brokenness and mourning, I may sound like a
gloomy person. My friends will testify that I am a joyful, hopeful,
enthusiastic, positive, productive woman. God’s Word promises that joy always
follows mourning. He has proven this truth to me over and over again. So much
so that I am able to rejoice even through my tears of pain and grief. I allow
myself to mourn when the chill of sorrow seeps into the crevices of my heart. I
am confident in the truth that the heights of joy are not far behind the depths
of grief. I am equally confident that unmourned pain is the thief of peace and
joy.
“ . . . weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh
in the morning" (Psalm 30:5).
“Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing:
thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; To the end that my
glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give
thanks unto thee for ever” (Psalm 30:11-12).
“Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful
shouting. He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, Shall
indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm
126:5-6).
“Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both
young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will
comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the
soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my
goodness, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:13-14).
Real
caring
is the willingness
to help each other
in making our brokenness
into the gateway to joy.
Henri Nouwen
“To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto
them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for
the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the
planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified” (Isaiah 61:3).
"A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because
her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth
no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world" (John
16:21).
Proverbs 17:22 says that a merry heart is good
medicine. There is also scientific data that laughter is healing. I’m grateful
that laughter also fills my life. We don’t have to choose between the two. It
isn’t either/or. It is both. The difference is that godly sorrow produces
repentance. Laughter does not. It is repentance that enables us to experience
healthy joy and laughter. I believe that’s why James wrote, “Let your laughter
be turned to sorrow,” and Ecclesiastes says, “sorrow is better than laughter”.
Tears are the Universal Language of the Planet
Tears are the one language we all understand. Even
creation mourns.
"The earth mourns and withers, the world fades
and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away . . . The new
wine mourns, The vine decays, All the merry-hearted sigh" (Isaiah 24:4, 7
NAS).
"The field is ruined, the land mourns, for the
grain is ruined, the new wine dries up, fresh oil fails" (Joel 1:10 NAS).
"The Lord roars from
And the shepherds' pasture grounds mourn, And the summit of
"For we know that the whole creation groans and
suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also
we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan
within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of
our body" (Romans 8:22-24 NAS).
The above passage describes a creation in great sorrow
and grief. As previ- ously mentioned, the pains of childbirth are used
throughout scripture as a metaphor for grieving.
No More Tears
Jesus said in John 16:33 that we would have
tribulation as long as we live in this world. He also said we would overcome
the world.
When my husband died March 30, 1987, Rev. E. V. Hill,
called with words of comfort and encouragement. After expressing his sorrow
over Clint’s death and joy over his home-going, in his own inimitable fashion
he said, “A-n-n-e. A-n-n-e, the Bible says we’re going to suffer. We didn’t
suffer before we got here, Anne, and we aren’t going to suffer when we leave,
so we gotta get it in while we’re here.”
The Word of God tells us there will be a time when
there will be no more tears. But that time is not here on earth.
“He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God
will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he
take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it” (Isaiah 25:8).
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;
and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall
there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation
21:4).
Thou
hast stricken them,
but they have not grieved;
thou hast consumed them,
but they have refused
to receive correction:
they have made their faces
harder than a rock;
they have refused to return.
Alert! Alert! A Solemn Word of Warning