TEARS, HARPS AND HOPES

As you start another week, no one truly understands how broken you feel right now.
You are on autopilot just trying to keep it all together because that’s the only way you will make it through the day.

2020 has been a hard year for you.

You lost a loved one

You lost a job

You lost a child

You feel hurt

You feel heartbroken

You feel hopeless

Years ago there was a group of people in the Bible who were taken captive from their homes by the Assyrians. They were brought to Babylon and now found themselves in exile. Due to what was happening in their life, they most likely felt similar to how you feel right now.

This isn’t what they signed up for. They lost their joy, their peace and their hope which can make even the strongest ones to want to give up in life.

Psalm 137:1-3 – By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!

TEARS
Feeling trapped in their circumstances, these men and women wept! They didn’t try ignore their feelings or suppress their emotions like we often do today. They were real with their discouragement, anger, and their pain.

They cried.

Many psychologists today would say this is actually a healthy step to take because it helps us process our emotions. So if you want to weep, scream or vent because you are going through a difficult season, I want to give you permission to do that.

HARPS
They laid their harps on the trees when they were asked to praise God. In that time, harps were used around the temple in Jerusalem where they knew God was present. It was the sound you heard when you had reason to praise God because life was good.

But in Babylon, life wasn’t good anymore. How could they praise God on the middle of what they were going through? The truth is many of us feel the exact same way as we justify why we have no reason to praise God anymore.

When you feel this way, it’s easy to push church, other Christians and the Bible aside due to the situation you are in – But I encourage you to not give up on God.

HOPE
No matter how bad things got for them, they never forgot Zion (Jerusalem). In other words, as they looked back they were still reminded of God’s story which was their source of hope.

When their ancestors were captive in Egypt, God heard their cries and He showed up. When they eventually settled in Jerusalem, their tears turned into praise because they knew and saw that He was with them.

May God’s story be the source of hope for you in your season of brokenness.
The birth of Jesus is the reminder that God has never given up on us.