Wednesday 28th January

Quiet your heart and mind. Consider placing your hands, palms up, in front of you. Release what is distracting and receive God’s gift. What does He have for you today?

“Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;"

Psalm 95:6

Ponder: Jesus lovingly touched many and brought healing. Think of some Bible people Jesus healed.

Scripture

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.

Psalm 130

First, think about your own life and relationship to God. Read the lament again and pay attention to what stands out for you. Read it again and open your heart for Jesus’ touch. Palms open to receive.

Overwhelmed by brokenness, a lament

I cried from my soul, “Hear me Jesus, hear my pleas for mercy." I was too overwhelmed to say anything else. I was holding my close friend, Barom, as he mourned the death of his son, unborn grandchild, and daughter, who had all died in quick succession. Barom’s son, Maikel, had left his small village and gotten involved in criminal activity in the city and had been murdered! Barom’s pregnant daughter, hearing the news of Maikel’s death, had thrown herself to the ground in mourning, landing on her stomach. A few days later she suffered a miscarriage that didn’t discharge properly and she died from sepsis shortly after.

I held Barom at a funeral for 3 lives lost. I was overwhelmed with the brokenness of the world, the senselessness of death, the loss of innocence, and the prevalence of sin. I cried a prayer of lament like I never had before. Psalm 130 had never felt so prescient.

Where do you turn when the depths crush you? When we are overwhelmed with the hurt around and in us, what do we do? We cry to God a prayer of lament, recognizing that if God counted our sins none could stand. But in all of this lament, there is hope! We never lose sight of the forgiving nature of our father Yahweh.

We feel the depths when in them, not numb to sin, but not letting it overwhelm us. We never lose hope, even in the pain. We wait. We hope in His Word. Our very soul, crushed by the hurt, waits. Imagine the night watchman. Longing for morning, when the darkness is overwhelmed by the light. When the sun brings clarity to the shadows. We pray the lament without losing the hope, we pray the condition without ever losing sight of the position.

Sam Bruce, Hillcrest School, Indonesia

Now ask God who you can pray this prayer for. What part of their suffering could you pray for? What truth could you pray into their life?

Kids’ Question: Share about a time when you were sad, is there anything you would like to tell God about it?