Soulfood

Mark Vroegop

Matthew 11:28-30 All those who are weary and heavy-laden, come to me and I will give you rest.

Jesus suffered on the cross and entered into his rest. But before that, he cried out by Psalm 22 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Rest isn’t the absence of problems or pain, but a place where we meet with God, trusting in Him.

Rest is not just situational but it is emotional. Peace will not come to me if I don’t know where to go with my pain. So where do I go to find rest in a world full of problems and pain? Consider lamenting…

Lament leads to rest because it leads to trust.

Psalm 22 – the most important redemptive moment in the entire Bible is wreathed in lament.

Lament is a prayer in pain that leads to trust. Four elements – turning to God in prayer, issuing a complaint, request help, and trust – a recommitment to believing what is true about God (in spite of how I feel).

Psalm 22 teaches us that pain and trust can run on parallel tracks. It bounces back and forth between pain and trust.

22:1-2 Complaint/pain bounces to vv 3-5’s truths about God that lead to trust, bounces to 6-8 another complaint, bounces to 9-11a (remembering God’s goodness and faithfulness) then back to a longer complaint in 11b-18, which bounces back to 19-31 proclaiming

It takes an enormous amount of faith to lament. We lament because, in our belief that God is sovereign, we see that our circumstances don’t make sense in light of what we know of God’s character. Because we believe biblical truths about God, we don’t understand why our circumstances are so painful. We have to go somewhere with our grief and our questions – faithful Christians go to God.

Lament anchors our souls to what is truly true. Life is really hard. God is really good. Both are true.

Hard is not bad – amen! but hard is hard – amen! Lament helps us to connect hard with good in a way that connects us to God. And when it does, we find rest.

Psalm 23 – where does the good shepherd prepare a table for me? At a lake house? At a cabin in the mountains? No – while I am surrounded by enemies. In the presence of those who are seeking to hurt and destroy me, Jesus invites me to sit down and eat with him. !!

Psalm 22:24 For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.

Lament is our way to talk to God about our confusion at the pain and sorrow we are feeling

If we internalize our questions, grief, pain, anger, etc we will not find rest. We will be enslaved to those feelings. But if we take them to God we can find freedom and rest. He knows already, but in the taking of these feelings to God we connect with him and can rest in the tension between what we are feeling and what we know is true about God.