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People young and old are leaving the Christian church at historic rates. Formally committed singers, teachers, authors, and even preachers are finding themselves discouraged with the Church, with their understanding of who God is and with their personal faith.
What are we missing in the Western Church that opens the doors for followers to walk out and never look back?
As I study the stories woven throughout the Bible and especially in the Old Testament I find I am drawn to the ones of suffering and pain. Mostly because in my own life, particularly for the past six years, I have experienced deep suffering and pain that has caused me to cry out in desperation, "Why?"
My journey of navigating this suffering in what feels like a contrast to a good God has caused me to dive deeper into biblical understanding because in my mind there has to be something there. Even in my suffering I have refused to accept that God wasn't good because of the pain. In my journey I have found that the Lord doesn't always give exact answers or specific reasonings for every pain but He does give His people something beautiful to wrestle with Him. Something to show us how to cling to Him in the storms of life. Some way to vent in unbridled frustration even while upholding His place as Creator of the universe. And that is the beautiful prayer language of lament.
Most western church-goers have probably never heard the term, lament. Others may have a vague understanding or recognize it from the under-read book of Lamentations in the Old Testament. But I believe that unless we as a Church relearn this prayer, we will continue to see our numbers dwindle. We are coming to a time in our Western culture where genuine, non-compromising faith is no longer going to be trendy or popular and we will be met with extreme persecution and scorn.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we must learn now how to suffer well. We must teach our young people to turn to God in the pain. We must re-learn the language of lament laid out so clearly in the Word so that when the trials increase- which they will- we will be ready. Not just individually but corporately. The consequence if we do not learn to wrestle with God in the pain of our lives will embitter our hearts and discourage our minds to silence. Instead we have to press into the uncomfortable unknown knowing that it will produce and refine our characters and our spirits. In the end we will grown and deepen our relationship with our Father instead of wandering far away in hopelessness. This is covenant relationship.
Dear friends, the enemy wants us silent in our suffering. He wants us to distance ourselves from the only One who can save us and redeem that which we lose. He wants us to stay mad at God in our anger, to turn others around us away from the truth and to be overwhelmed with no way to stay afloat.
But God says, come to me all who are weary. He desires us to walk boldly into His throne room with our prayer, petitions and frustrations. He wants us to wrestle with Him in Spirit and in Truth. It is part of our worship. It is a crucial element to our covenantal relationship with the faithful Creator. He waits for us to cry out, knowing He's our only hope. Our eternal promises wrapped in the Spirit's comforting as we navigate this broken world on our way to a renewed creation. The very fiber of our being quakes with a knowing- this world is not how it should be. And we lament that truth while praising the God who is making all things right again. The tension between the already, but not yet grieving our hearts, yet delighting in a good God who is seeing all justice served through His unyielding love. And until that hope is fully realized, we lament. We stay engaged. And we endure to the end.
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