I have wept tears of sorrow in my law office with many people who are enduring the greatest crises of their life.
Tears don’t discriminate.
I’ve cried with men who survived multiple deployments and the horrors of war, children who were horribly abused, and women who destroyed their family with addiction.
I’ve wept over my own wrecked life.
But I believe all those tears of sorrow release a valve that can open our heart to joy.
Why?
Tears make our heart vulnerable.
They give God an open door into our heart.
However, we often turn God away in favor of lesser comforts. “Comforts” like sex, alcohol, accomplishments, family, etc., are insufficient because our soul needs God.
If we substitute them for God, our tears will likely be wasted.
We won’t reap the joy that God promises us.
The Bible says: “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalms 126:5-6).
We can experience joy from our tears — and that happens when we can look back at our tears and know that God has worked good from the evil.
He does that.
The evil, whether it be our own doing or someone else’s, is not more powerful than God.
It never has been and never will be.
Related: God Gives His Power to Those Who Are Humble
It may seem like it is when we’re going through it, but that’s exactly why we need to turn to God — to gain HIS perspective.
He gives us tears to help us find our way back to Him.
Our tears are precious to God.
Related: We Can’t Let Evil Steal Our Peace Away
The Psalmist understood this and wrote: “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” (Psalms 56:8) God knows our sorrow. Indeed, even God in human form shed tears for those He loved. The Bible says upon the death of Lazarus — “Jesus wept” (John 11:35).
Our tears water the seeds God plants in our soul.
To listen to the song “Tears in a Bottle” by Kimberly Faith, find it on Pandora, iTunes, Spotify, Reverbnation and Amazon.
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