Spiritual Comfort

Have you ever pasted a happy smile on your face and donned a make-believe “everything is wonderful” attitude for the world to see? We all fake it sometimes, but hidden emotion eats at the heart and soul and destroys the body. Yet no one enjoys being around someone who repeatedly uses other people as a dump for their angry and hurt feelings.

The Bible has many examples of people who expressed their honest, heartfelt emotions to God. Some were despondent to the point of giving up on their lives. There are expressions of anger, grief, sadness and hopelessness in the books of Job, Ecclesiastes, Jeremiah, and in the lives of people like Moses, Paul, Hannah, David, Jonah, Jesus and others.

Jesus said in Matthew 5,

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, Paul says,

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this
all–surpassing power is from God and not from us.

We are hard pressed on every side,
but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

The Psalms are described as Israel’s songbook. Psalm 88 is likely the darkest song ever written with no seeming resolution to the psalmist’s depression. Sing with me…

…my eyes are dim with grief.
I call to you, O LORD, every day;
I spread out my hands to you…

Why, O LORD, do you reject me
and hide your face from me?

Psalm 42 beautifully describes feelings of sorrow, longing and faith. There is no indication that the problems described vanished, but our spiritual comfort is from God alone.

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?

My tears have been my food
day and night,
while men say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.

By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?”

My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

Excerpts from Psalm 42