Lament
Meaning
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary Lament means “a crying out in grief”. The Oxford Dictionary takes it a little bit further by saying that lament is “a passionate expression of grief or sorrow”.
In the Bible Laments are:
a form of protest to draw everyone’s including God’s attention to the suffering that is going on,
a way to process emotions. It’s a place where we vent our anger and dismay at the ruin cause my people’s sin and selfishness;
a place to voice confusion and doubt. Suffering makes us question everything, including God’s character and promises. The most amazing thing is that none of this is looked down in the Bible! On the contrary, laments restore a sacred dignity to human suffering.
The Blessing of Lamenting
Lament is the first step towards healing. When we lament we acknowledge our feelings, hurt and need of healing. Our laments always say something about ourselves and our hearts. However not always they are a true indicator of what is true.
Feelings are always a true indicator of what we feel is true but they are not a true indicator of what is true. That’s why it is so important to understand the difference between trusting your feelings and putting your trust in your feelings.
Trusting your feelings just means acknowledge them by naming them and confessing them.
To put your trust in your feelings means defining truth based on what you feel.
Feelings are an indicator of something. It allows us to follow that “something” and bring God into. That’s why it is so important to lament, by putting these guttural cries of our heart into words on God (and not on people) because only He can handle them. No one will ever understand fully our sorrow, sadness, grief, pain or even craziness as God can. People around us can empathize and even be with us in our own pain, but only God will fully get it as we do and even further than that.
Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can fully share its joy.
—Proverbs 14:10
Lament is a free pass to fully face and name our pain and suffering without sugar coating any of our thoughts, concerns and feelings. We are free to express ourselves in an unfiltered way with unfiltered words. Also it gives us permission to ask hard questions without condemnation or guilt, to protest life’s difficulties, to scream, vent, plead and complain to God in His presence. The more raw we are about ourselves and the feelings we have caused by a wound the freer we get and the clearer is our understanding about what’s going on within us and in the situation. That’s part of a committed relationship with Him.
Bottom line, lamenting is in essence legitimize invalidating feelings.
Lament helps us to trade our anger for tenderness by exposing what we feel. When we do it, usually we realize that anger is a self protection emotion to what we are really feeling. Usually, underneath it lies fear, which leads us to sorrow, sadness and grief. When we feel these we tend to feel vulnerable, and vulnerability helps us to deal with things with truth and honesty. Once we expose our sorrow, sadness and grief, they diminish within us and joy, tenderness, peace, lightness, forgiveness begins to grow within us instead. After doing so, we find ourselves once again in a place of hope—not because lamenting does anything magical, but because God sings a louder song than suffering ever could, a song of resurrection, renewal, restoration, and re-creation.
The Fruit of Lament
As we lament we are being transformed at the image and likeness of Jesus and God meets us in that lowest place. And while we do it our emotions, pain and circumstances meet His character.
There is always fruit in our laments. It’s tangible the change within our hearts, even when our circumstances aren’t changed. God’s response to our laments is not restricted to a change of our circumstances. God’s goal is our transformation, and for that He uses everything! Many people in the Bible received promises and died without receiving them in their lifetime on earth, “but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it” (Hebrews 11:13). However, the Word says that God fulfilled them and will fulfill all His promises.
As we bring our laments to God, we are transformed and reminded of His faithfulness, character and love. The Holy Spirit reminds us that His grace is sufficient for us, and we learn to forgive and release our desires for revenge. His comfort always meets us and we learn to be joyful in our sufferings.
We are met by Jesus in truth, humility and faith. And in His presence, our lament slowly becomes a place of hope.
Practice
Your own lament can be a simple and powerful prayer in the midst of anger, sorrow, grief, longing. When we feel we have no else to turn to, we cry out to God.
Lament is a child-like prayer that, besides the awareness of the darkness, chooses intentionally to focus on Jesus and His love. Lament always hopes without ignoring or denying reality; it acknowledges where we are at, how we feel, what we need, where we need to be and cries out for God to narrow that gap.
In hope Abraham believed against hope, Paul says (Romans 4:18). In other words, when there was no more reason to hope Abraham deliberately chose to keep hoping in God and in God’s promises to him, without ever taking his eyes off reality. That’s faith expressed through lament.
Laments can be expressed in many ways: words, music, dance, drawing, or any other kind of creative expression. You’re free to choose what suits you better. Whatever form your lament takes, it is a way to start telling your story, naming your feelings, releasing painful memories to receive healing, comfort, encouragement, hope, guidance from God, by trusting Him.
Be strong and courageous! Don’t be afraid or discourage. For I, the Lord your God, am with you wherever you go
—Joshua 1:9
To express your lament click on the bottom bellow and follow the pathway. You can use it to bring your pain to God anytime you are hurting and grieving. It’s okay to let out all your feelings, questions, and frustrations in your lament.
May God bless you with His presence, deep awareness and understanding of His unmeasurable love for you. Shalom!