19/9/2021 [Sunday Service] www.lifechurchmissions.com

We Can Humbly Bring Our Laments to God <Ro 8:20-23; Ps 13; 1 Co 10:10-11>

1. God can understand man’s laments.

1) Living in this fallen, corrupted world, there will surely be groaning due to the troubles faced.

2) God also allows many “psalms of lament” to be recorded in the Bible.

* It is not that Christians cannot lament, but we must know how to bring our laments appropriately to God.

2. Must see the beauty of psalms of lament.

1) Laments reflect the reality believers face.

* Christian life may not always be smooth-sailing and without worries.

* Laments reflect the real emotions and struggles of humans.

* Laments remind us that we are humans after all, and there will surely be mysteries and God’s perfect will which we cannot comprehend.

2) Laments in the Bible encompass praise and the right view of God.

* Laments bring out God’s unchanging truth, such that people can still sustain their faith in perplexing situations and in the waiting process.

* In laments, do not lose the right theology and right view of God. Do not lose faith in midst of laments.

* Laments are not merely for people to whine or grumble, but they point people to “trusting God”.

* In the process of lamenting, must experience the transformation of the heart: Biblical laments always progress from pessimistic to hopeful, sorrow to joy, fear to faith.

* God hears prayers and is gracious and trustworthy, so we should bring our sorrows and laments to Him.

3) Laments also reflect our intimate relationship with God.

* See God as a safe Person to confide in, because God can empathize with us.

* Laments reveal the struggles of God’s people, but they struggle in God (within the relationship), not outside of God (relationship).

* God likes His children to pour out their sorrows to Him.

3. But we must distinguish between the laments permitted by God and the grumbling He detests.

1) Those who grumble often lose faith and truth.

* Those who grumble are never transformed in the end, they are negative from beginning to end, even becoming more and more negative, rebellious and disbelieving.

* God warns believers not to grumble: Read <1 Co 10:10-11>.

* Grumbling accuses and slanders God; but lament trusts God and cries out to Him due to the trust in His faithfulness and goodness.

* Grumbling distances man from God, but lament turns man to God.

2) The difference between lament and grumbling lies in humility and pride.