Lament that pours out your heart in an honest way is God’s way of getting you to open your heart so that he can work. It’s the process of God drawing you closer to him, so that he becomes all the more precious to you. When you’re in a time of extreme difficulty in your life, the goal is not to look good so that Jesus looks good. The goal is to be honest about your need so that Jesus looks like the answer he is.

You have God’s permission to cry. Knowing God means you can fully acknowledge the evil of the world instead of pretending it’s not there. You are free to lament all the pain, because your hope rests in Christ, not in your optimism. You’re not always supposed to be cheerful. Christianity is not a positive mental attitude. It’s real. It’s Jesus.

God doesn’t call you to avoid or suppress your emotions. He doesn’t want you to merely sooth your emotions. God wants you to engage your emotions by bringing your emotions to him. God cares about how you feel. Put your feelings into words. You can rejoice where you see redemption, and you can lament where you see brokenness, and you can yearn for the full redemption that is yet to come. Emotions aren’t something to ignore, and they aren’t something to control. They are something to give to God, so he can help you see as he sees. Give God your emotions, real, raw, and broken as they may be. God can transform your emotions from being a weapon used against you into a weapon used for you, and for God’s glory.