Day 21 — Will you forget me?
Psalm 13:1
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
In the Darbandi house, we continually find ourselves caught off-guard with what’s going on across the whole globe. I often swing between the extremes of sorrow and bewilderment on one end and then faith and hope on the other. This can feel exhausting, until I remind myself that they don’t have to be contradictory - as long as they are held in the hands of lament.
Psalm 13 is a beautiful prayer of lament that we will journey through over the next four days. The first few words alone, ‘How long, O Lord?’ frame our understanding of the difference between complaining and lamenting. Lament is directed towards God with an understanding of his unchanging character, whereas a complaint accuses of bad intentions. Throughout the Bible we see lament taking an important place in the prayers of God’s people in their most challenging seasons - even ‘Jesus wept’.
We have a three month old baby at home, and I've been struck by his shameless ability to cry when he’s upset or in need. Jasper’s cry is not a lack of faith, or a complaining - it's a heartfelt cry of need to his daddy, with the expectation I will respond. It reminds me of the passage in Romans 8 that tells us that by the Spirit ‘we cry, “Abba, Father”’. We are designed to be in intimate conversation with our Heavenly Father, through the pains and the joys.
For some, especially those working on the front-line, you will be acutely aware of the pain that surrounds you and perhaps need the ‘permission’ to vent to God. For others, myself included, we might be a couple of steps removed and need to allow ourselves time to engage with the reality of the heartbreak going on around us. When we stub our toe, we cry out in pain - when we are hurt spiritually and emotionally, we cry out in lament.
Prayer: Make some space to allow the Spirit to lead you in response, perhaps ask yourself the question, ‘How is my heart?’. Allow your spirit to cry out in lament. Most crucially, remind yourself of your loving Father in Heaven who is waiting with open arms to hear and comfort you.
Mike Darbandi
Gas Street Leadership Team