Lament: Bringing our Emotional Pain to God

04/20/20 • 25 min

What do we do with emotional pain when we can’t make it better? (Hint: David, Hannah, Jerimiah, Job, Habakkuk and Jesus all did it.) In fact, the example is so abundant in the Scriptures you can’t miss it. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Ted Witzig Jr. will answer this question and make it very accessible to all who endure pain.

Lament is a prayer in pain that leads to trust.
Lament includes four steps:
- Turn to God
- Make a complaint
- Make your request
- Move forward in trust
Lament connects the experience of our pain with the reality of God’s promises.
Some people are afraid to lament because it often deals with raw emotions and difficult questions. However, lament is actually an act of faith as we turn toward God in our pain.
God has given lament to the individual who is suffering.
God has given lament to the community who is suffering with an individual.

Lament is a prayer in pain that leads to trust.
Lament includes four steps:
- Turn to God
- Make a complaint
- Make your request
- Move forward in trust
Lament connects the experience of our pain with the reality of God’s promises.
Some people are afraid to lament because it often deals with raw emotions and difficult questions. However, lament is actually an act of faith as we turn toward God in our pain.
God has given lament to the individual who is suffering.
God has given lament to the community who is suffering with an individual.

Previous Episode

Suffering

Suffering nearly touches us all and is a common human experience. Suffering is bad. Period. Yet, God steps into this badness. Somehow His knowledge of it and presence in it has some redemptive qualities. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Brian Sutter with Fred Witzig take the topic of suffering head-on and expose the hope that suffering affords.

Suffering rises from different places. One type of suffering results from consequences from our actions. Another type of suffering results from calamity completely outside of our control. And yet, a third type of suffering comes about when we, by choice, pick up our cross and follow Christ.
Throughout time, suffering has proven to be a catalyst for either rejecting God or growing faith in God.
Throughout the Bible we have examples of men and women who, out of their suffering, turned to God and asked “why this suffering?” God is big enough to shoulder our complaints. There is a difference, however, in asking “why” from a standpoint of faith and a standpoint of no faith.
There are some advantages suffering brings. Suffering gives us a Godward perspective. Suffering helps us identify what matters in this life. Suffering allows us to identify with Christ’s suffering. Suffering helps us rid our hearts of sin. In time, God can use suffering to bring us to a settled place in Him.
Suffering is often coupled with our loves. Those people and things most dear to us carry the potential for suffering. This risk to love is the risk Christ took and suffered on our behalf.
According to God’s purposes, He alleviates some suffering while at other times equips us to endure.
God calls us to walk with those who are suffering yet doing so requires patience and silence.

Next Episode

Walking With Kids Through Their Loss

It is easy to overlook the losses our kids are enduring these days. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Craig Stickling highlights what many of our kids are experiencing as their lives have been put on hold during these days of COVID-19. Fortunately, parents are equipped with a few helpful tools to minister to their losses.

Some tools for the toolset: