Faith in the News Christian News
What three things does the Bible say about your tears?
Your Tears in a Bottle
Psalm 56:8 “You have kept count of my tossing’s; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?”
Can you get a mental picture of this? God has kept count of your “tossing’s.” What does this mean? Have you ever tossed and turned about things? Have you been kept awake at night about things that you are worried about? I know I have. I have “tossed and turned” over many things that I had no control over but in the end it turned out to be nothing at all. My lack of trust in God was the reason I tossed and turned. Now, imagine all the tears you have shed over things in your life. God has kept them in a bottle. David had so many tears that he drenched his couch (or bed) with them (Psalm 6:6). They are precious to God and God keeps an account of them all. Nothing of your pain is ever forgotten by God.
Your Tears of Love
There have been so many that have asked me to pray for their prodigal children that I cannot even count them all. Do you have any prodigal children who have wandered away from the Lord? I know a lot of parents that have shed tears for their wayward children whom they deeply desire to come back to the Lord. These are tears of love. Paul wrote to the Corinthians “I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you” (2 Cor 2:4). Just as Paul’s tears flowed out of a love for the believers at Corinth so many parents and grandparents have shed tears over their children and grandchildren who, like the prodigal son, have wandered away from the faith.
Your Tears Wiped Away
The Apostle John mentioned God wiping away our tears twice in the Book of Revelation. Once in 17:7 he writes “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” and in Revelation 21:4 “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” When my children were young they came to me or their mother in tears and like a good parent, we wiped their tears away but there would always be more tears to come so the image of God tenderly wiping away our tears in Revelation makes sense to us, doesn’t it? The difference here is that when God wipes them they stay wiped away forever. Those tears will possibly be the last tears we will ever shed (with the exception of tears of joy). When God wipes something away, it stays wiped away because there will be no more things to shed tears over since there will be no more death, sorry, pain, or mourning because all of “the former things [would] have passed away.”
Conclusion
Jesus wept at times. It’s okay to cry. It shows we have a tender heart but the good news is that someday we’ll have no more hurt to shed tears over and that day will surely be a day to rejoice over because we were once lost but now we’ve been found or as Jesus said in the parable of the Prodigal Son, “this my son (or daughter) was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate” (Luke 15:24).
May God richly bless you,
Pastor Jack Wellman
image source: CC BY LMAP
modifications: cropped, text added
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