Tears And Prayer

Sermon Outline

Tears and Prayer

Paddick Van Zyl

LDMI

29 July 2020

Scripture :

Psalm 39 :12-13 TPT

12 Lord, listen to all my tender cries.

Read my every tear, like liquid words that plead for your help.

I feel all alone at times, like a stranger to you,

passing through this life just like all those before me.

13 Don’t let me die without restoring

joy and gladness to my soul.

May your frown over my failure

become a smile over my success.

Psalm 126 :5-6 TPT

5 Those who sow their tears as seeds

will reap a harvest with joyful shouts of glee.

6 They may weep as they go out carrying their seed to sow,

but they will return with joyful laughter and shouting with gladness

as they bring back armloads of blessing and a harvest overflowing!

Theme:

God wants us to bring our deepest feelings, hurts, anguish before Him in prayer.

Introduction:

Crying is common in this world. It does little good to ask the reason for it. Mud-dyscuttle is what one might call a weeping planet. Laughter can be heard here and there, but by and large, weeping predominates. With maturity the sound and reason for crying changes, but never does it stop. All infants do it everywhere--even in pub-lic. By adulthood most crying is done alone and in the dark. Weeping, for babies, is a sign of health and evidence that they are alive. Isn't this a chilling omen? Not laugh-ter but tears is the life sign. It leaves weeping and being synonyms. *

Sermon:

Eugene Peterson, The Message bible, remarks about our tears: “Tears are a biological gift of God. They are a physical means for expressing emotional and spiritual experience. But it is hard to know what to do with them. If we indulge our tears, we cultivate self-pity. If we suppress our tears, we lose touch with our feelings.”**

We do not find in the Psalms any suggestion to either vent or deny our feelings. What we do see, practised by David, is the concept of ‘praying our feelings’. It is interesting to note that an entire book in the Old Testament is entitled Lamentations, meaning:

*To express passionate grief about something

*Express regret or disappointment about something

*To cause anguish or distress

*to think deeply about something that makes one unhappy, angry or worried

God wants us to bring our deepest feelings, hurts, anguish before Him in prayer.

We find that tears and weeping is common in the bible.

Joseph wept when he saw his brothers (Gen. 43:30)

The Israelites wept when Moses died (Deuteronomy 34:8)

Hannah wept for being barren (1 Sam 1:8)

David and his warriors wept till they had no more power to weep (1 Sam 30:4)

Job, Peter, Mary and the sinful woman:

Luke 7:36-39 NKJV

36 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat.

37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil,

38 and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.

39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”

In Psalm 6, we find David crying out to God:

Psalm 6 TPT

A Cry for Healing

For the Pure and Shining One

A song for the end, sung for the new day by King David

1 No, Lord! Don’t condemn me.

Don’t punish me in your fiery anger.

2 Please deal gently with me, Yahweh;

show me mercy, for I’m sick and frail.

I’m fading away with weakness.

Heal me, for I’m falling apart.

3 How long until you take away this pain in my body and in my soul?

Lord, I’m trembling in fear!

4 Yahweh, return to me and deliver my life

because I know your faithful love is toward me.

5 How can I be any good to you dead?

For graveyards sing no songs.

In the darkness of death who remembers you?

How could I bring you praise if I’m buried in a tomb?

6 I’m exhausted and worn out with my weeping.

I endure weary, sleepless nights filled with moaning,

soaking my pillow with my tears.

7 My eyes of faith won’t focus anymore, for sorrow fills my heart.

There are so many enemies who come against me!