Let Your Tears Water You

Over the past few weeks there has been so much struggle, so much pain, so much death, so much heartache all around me. I have seen numerous people mourn the loss of loved ones, some so young it hurts just that much more. As I have felt like the waves crashing over me again and again, even though I didn't know these individuals as close as the ones who are grieving, my intercessor's heart began to break. This morning as I sat on the chair in my living room and prayed I began to weep. How could I go on? How are those left behind in this world suppose to go on? What is God trying to speak to me through all of this and the burden He has placed on me? Afterall, I didn't ask for the gift of empathy or an intercessor's heart. I felt fear. I felt anger. I felt confusion. I felt defeated and lost.

As I was in the grief which seemed to be taking me deeper and deeper all of sudden I felt the tears running down my in such a vivid way and all I heard was "Let your tears water you".

What does this mean? Does this make it all go away so I feel no more pain or sorrow? Of course not, but I heard and felt God speak this to me this morning and then I felt compelled to share with you or whoever would read it. My prayer is that you are uplifted in the middle of whatever trail or sorrow you are experiencing because it is not God's heart for you to stay in the pain and sorrow, but that you let that heartache, loss, grief, struggle-let the tears that come from it all water you now because He wants to make you stronger and brave. His heart is to see His children rise above the struggles and pain of this world and fall more in love with Himself.

To do this we have to choose to pursue God even when we don't want to, whether that means we stop choosing the world or we lay down our pain at His feet and believe He is our comforter even when it just doesn't make sense in our human head.

The TRUTH is....

God does love you, right now even as you sit in your puddle of tears (1 John 4:18--His love drives out any fear)

God does know, Jesus walked through immense pain too (Luke 22:39-46--Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane before being captured & Hebrews 4:14-16-- we have a High Priest who understands.)

The LORD has compassion on you (Psalm 40:11 "You, O Lord, will not withhold your compassion from me; Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me.)

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18 "The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and he delivers those whose spirit has been crushed.")

As I was hearing God speak this all to my weary heart this morning, a song came on, It is Well by Bethel Music. (The video can be found at the bottom of this blog if you'd like to listen to it.) The bridge sings:

So, let go, my soul
and trust in Him.
The wind and waves still know His name!

How can we do this? How can we just let go and trust in Him when the pain is so real and it seems like there is no way out? The chorus sings:

Through it all, through it all
My eyes are on You.
Through it all, through it all 
It is well.

It is possible to let your tears water you. Notice God didn't tell me to stop crying and push it down, He is saying this:

"Let your tears water you! Cry out to Me. I will make you stronger and I will lead you. Throw away anything that is not of me, fear, agony, pain, and any idols you have placed in between Me and you, any mindsets that are not of me, but of this world. Surrender it all before Me. You either allow these hard emotions of the pains of this world to take you to a place of deeper relation with Me-which then leads to more people coming to know Me OR you stay in the emotions, push them down, and allow them to rule your life, stealing your life as they do. The world and the things of this world will fade away. Keep this at the front of your mind as you keep going. But that is not where I want you to stay. Do not be afraid, do not fear, if you are tuned into My greater presence you will overcome! You have to remember who you are in Me and who I am for you on a consistent basis. These are not just things to make you feel good my child, this is the Truth."

Isaiah 30:18-26

"Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; how blessed are all those who long for Him. O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. 

Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left. And you will defile your graven images overlaid with silver, and  your molten images plated with gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing, and say to them, "Be gone!"

Then He will give you rain for the seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the yield of the ground, and it will be rich and plenteous; on that day your livestock will graze in a roomy pasture. Also the oxen and the donkeys which work the ground will eat salted fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. On every lofty mountain and on every hill there will be streams of running water on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the Lord binds up the fracture of His people and heals the bruise He has inflicted."

With the Lord, there is hope.
With the Lord, there is joy.
With the Lord, there is restoration.
With the Lord, there is strength.

With the Lord, this is all for now, right now in the middle of the pain and sorrow. It is there to lift you up and take you deeper with God because as your tears fall, guess what, they are watering you, watering your roots and sinking you deeper into Jesus and out of that will grow something even more beautiful!