Day 25 - Lamentations

18 “The Lord is righteous,



yet I rebelled against his command.


Listen, all you peoples;


look on my suffering.


My young men and young women


have gone into exile.


19 “I called to my allies


but they betrayed me.


My priests and my elders


perished in the city


while they searched for food


to keep themselves alive.

20 “See, Lord, how distressed I am!


I am in torment within,


and in my heart I am disturbed,


for I have been most rebellious.


Outside, the sword bereaves;


inside, there is only death.


21 “People have heard my groaning,


but there is no one to comfort me.


All my enemies have heard of my distress;


they rejoice at what you have done.


May you bring the day you have announced


so they may become like me.

22 “Let all their wickedness come before you;


deal with them


as you have dealt with me


because of all my sins.


My groans are many


and my heart is faint.” (Lamentations 1:18-22)

Lamentations is a bunch of whining.  There's really no other way to say it.  I mean, it's called Lamentations for goodness sakes.  They are...laments.  For that reason, the book of Lamentations is encouraging to me.  God can handle our cries.  He can handle our laments.  He can handle our whining.

Sometimes we get to thinking that God has bigger things to worry about, bigger fish to fry.  We think that he doesn't care about our little problems because He's worried about things like world peace.  The message of Lamentations is that God DOES care about all of our problems.  Yes, He does have big problems like world peace to worry about, but He is deeply concerned about you, your family, your relationships, your career, your finances, your heartbreak...your problems.  Also, we think that if we are faithful, then we shouldn't be 'bothering' God with our problems.  In fact, we think that as people of faith, we shouldn't have all these 'problems.'  That's simply not true.  Life happens.  We have trouble sometimes.  And it's okay to speak those to our Creator.

Jeremiah teaches us in Lamentations that God wants us to pour our hearts out to Him.  He wants to hear our concerns.  He wants to know what's going on in our hearts.  And He can even handle a little whining.  So, lament away.  He's listening, and He cares.