Finding God In Your Sorrow

As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my food
day and night…

Psalm 42:1-3a ESV

I lost my father exactly one week before Christmas. It was completely unexpected, and utterly heartbreaking.

In the midst of all the plans I had made for myself, I was hit with overwhelming grief and a mountain of arrangements to be made. I felt the days pass in a dizzying blur, and it seemed as if I was experiencing a carousel of a dozen emotions, all at once.

At this time, Psalm 42 spoke deeply to my “displaced” and grieving heart.

My soul was desperate for communion with the Lord.

My situation may not have happened to you personally, and I pray that it never does, but each of us has had moments in our life when we are brought to our knees by a change in our life that is totally unexpected and difficult to understand. In these moments, in the blur, we may feel bitter or confused. We may feel uncertain, as this psalmist did, where to “go and meet with God.”

My encouragement to you is this: hold strong and meet with God each morning. Do not give up. You don’t need an elaborate prayer, it can be as simple as saying to God “I am here, I am broken and I need you. I don’t have anything to give right now; please come meet me here.”

Soften and open your heart, and let your position be as the Psalmist’s:

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (Psalm 45:3 NIV)

I promise you that, in your faithfulness, God will give you strength and peace that surpasses understanding.

Lift up your soul to the Lord today; He has not forgotten you. He will meet you in your place of sorrow.