Bottling Our Tears

You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book? Psalm 56:8

This is a journal. I don't always enter the things God is using in my life to bring me through each day in his presence. But some things, I love to record and read again and again.  This is one of them.

There is a lot of sorrow among friends and family. With sorrow comes tears. I am a fan of tears, and of  crying in general. I believe that it helps to cleanse our emotions, and relieve the pressure to keep us from bottling it up, to making it explode later.  I see emotions like anything that we keep inside a bottle until it ferments, and eventually will explode if not properly contained.  Some things contained get better with age, some become vile, and emotions become vile.  So we release them with tears, and according to scripture, God bottles them instead. Interesting concept, Release emotions, bottle tears.  Will have to think on that some. 

But, my usual study practice is to take a word and make note of all the scriptures that are relative to the meaning of the word that suits my questioning heart. What generally occurs, is there is a progression from the earliest scriptures that develops a mindset of understanding.  A principle develops, and the mind of God, looking at the subject from several angles, gives a picture of God's thoughts on the subject.  This study on tears was exactly that.

Watch the progression. See if you put together the puzzle:

•  My eyes pour out tears to God. Job 16:20b

• Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. II Kings 20:5b

• He will swallow up death forever, And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; Isaiah 25:8 b

• Thus says the Lord: “Refrain your voice from weeping, And your eyes from tears; For your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord, And they shall come back from the land of the enemy. Jeremiah 31:16

• Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:24

Notice the phrases:

• "put my tears into your bottle," "in your book"
• "pour out Tears to God"
• "on the third day"
• "God will wipe away tears"
• "come back from the land of the enemy"
• "help my unbelief"
• "for your work shall be rewarded"

What do we learn? ~

1. A willingness to release the pain to God's keeping, which does not go unnoticed. God records it, values our tears, notes our pain, begins the story of our recovery and follows it through with us.
2. We must then act upon our willingness ~ cry, pray, pour out our heart to him. Let it be known to God. But release it.
3. Next is a reference to the future day of Christ on the cross, when the fullness of our healing is complete. The inference for us is to lay the burden at the cross, in full recognition of the resurrection.  See the hand of God in our circumstances as if he has now bottled our tears, recorded our need, and has completed what is necessary to make a solution possible. See it as if it were already finished, and place faith in that.
4. Look to the day that God will wipe away out tears.  Don't expect that it happens immediately, but it could help to refocus on Jesus and not on our pain.
5. Turn our back on Satan. Satan uses our pain as a weak point, where he aims his attacks. We sometimes wander into his territory by allowing him during our weak points to bombard us with his negative, discouraging thoughts. I know I am vulnerable to this. Part of what makes the saying, "when we are weak, He is strong;" true of God, is that during our weakness, He is hard at work trying to divert our attention from Satan's lies. We need to find the stillness, quietness with him to hear it. With awareness, we can walk out of the land of Satan. He will make the path clear.
6. Inevitably, we will need help in some area.  Our faith often falters, from fear, confusion, and continued attacks by Satan. It never hurt to recognize our struggle to believe is also an area where prayer can be a battle cry. 
7. No one said it would be easy, but God promises success if we follow him. "Your work shall be rewarded.

Lastly, I wanted to say that I noticed while I was reading the scriptures of the Old Testament, that the practice of the ancients was to cry a lot.  They seemed to believe that the more they cried, the more God listened.  In the new Testament, Jesus noted that the Pharisees of his day, made long prayers. Knowing the ancient customs, they may have cried false tears as well. (me imagining.)  It became a religious thing to cry out in public, to make them selves look like they were honoring the scripture in a way that was more pleasing to God than the tears of the humble who cried in their homes. Many old religions include people, especially women in the streets, crying loudly so their gods will hear.  I believe that Jesus was warning against this when he said not to behave like Pharisees and Sadducees.

Tears don't have to be private, but they don't benefit us much if we think the more we beg of God the help we desire, while crying and continuing long in prayer, the more he hears us. We miss the point. God wants us to move forward, through healing.  Like stages of newness. The ancients and the religious didn't see the whole picture.  Going before the Lord in tears, doesn't get his attention. It is merely step 1 in humbling ourselves before him, and honoring his process, accepting it, and asking him to come along side as we walk through the process.

That's the God I serve. The one who doesn't leave me drowning in my tears, but respects my feelings, and the fact that I hurt badly enough to be crying.  So much so that he begins a record of my healing, and he starts it by bottling my tears.  Impactful in the least, to me.  In fact, I would say that the process also ends in tears for me. Because I cry tears of joy as well.  I suppose he bottles those and marks the day of my rejoicing, so the record is complete.  Because God is the God of finished works and new beginnings.  (numbers 7 and 8.)

I couldn't help but notice that there are 6 items in the list that are about my human part - 6 is the number of man.  And the 7th item is what God does in the end - 7 is the number of completion, to be finished. 

Thank you, Lord for your perfect plan.  Thank you for something like Bible Gateway that allows a quick research for opening the word in its fullness.  And for lessons so easily learned.  But also for the Holy Spirit which explains the truths to us.  It is an evidence to me that you have always existed to provide for us, your creation, even to the extent of bottling our tears.

In Jesus name, AMEN