Tears in a Bottle
Sorrow and suffering are common occurrences for all who live in this fallen, sin-cursed world. If we live, suffering is inevitable for us. While this may be a depressing and painful reality, our hope lies in the salvific, substitutionary and atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. For those who have placed their faith in Him, He has taken our place, bore the wrath belonging to us, given us His righteousness and bridged the deep, eternal abyss between the Father’s holiness and our depravity. The operational word in the Gospel message is substitution.
Because of these truths, we are no longer enemies of God and He is no longer angry over us. We are now His children and He is our Father. He cares for us and He loves us. Never is this relational love more evident than when we experience pain and sorrow. When we are in anguish he keeps track of our sorrows. When we are in pain He collects our tears and records then in His book. He is not afar off from His own. The ignorant, uninformed Deistic beliefs held by some are proven false time and time again by the Christian who experiences the grace and love of His Father during times of pain. Have you experienced this increase in grace during times of sorrow? If you haven’t, and you are truly born-again, you soon will.
“Perhaps no figure of speech represents God in a more gracious light, than when He is spoken of as stooping from His throne and coming down from Heaven to attend to the woes and wants of His redeemed people.” C.H. Spurgeon.
Every single person experiences wounds, pain and sorrow. When we do, these vital truths become much more than stoic, theological truths on a piece of paper. They are life-saving and life-changing realities. This is why we state time and again that all good Biblical counseling is evangelical first. These resources are simply not available to the apostate. There are a myriad of issues that plague us as people, but the Lord is sufficient to heal them all. Without these truths in our proverbial counseling toolbox, we are forced to take a superficial and artificial approach to counseling right along with the rest of the world.
He tracks our pain. He collects our tears. He records our sorrows, that the child of God might be comforted and made whole by the loving and gracious advocacy of our Father in heaven. Praise be to the Lord Jesus Christ for making this healing balm available to all who would put their faith in Him!