‘Out of the Depths I cry to you, O Lord. O Lord hear my voice’.

The psalmist who wrote this, captured what we all long for, in times of pain, anguish and despair; we long to be heard. We cry out for answers. We want to know our painful cry doesn’t just blow away in the wind; but is rather heard by God. To be heard and valued despite our pain and in the midst of it gives some solace.

Jay: “I didn’t really think I was wanted by anyone… I got into drinking and doing drugs and it sent me down the wrong course. There was a certain point where I had just come home from a party and I was like its not even worth living its not even worth being here anymore”.

The ‘dark night of the soul’. Jay and some of us have journeyed through difficult circumstances marriage break ups, deaths, bankruptcy, depression. All these deserve our cries of anguish, the deep sound that comes from the ‘dark night of the soul’. To cry out, ‘Lord hear me, I’m hurting down here’.

Jay: “I thought about ending everything but I just felt like I was meant to be here for a purpose”…“It wasn’t long after that that I went to that Christian Surfers Camp and it just changed my life”…

I used to see God as removed, aloof and unmoved by suffering; now however that view has changed somewhat. God hasn’t moved but I have grown and seen more of the world and it’s suffering. My worldview has shifted as I have seen humanity from a global perspective.

Jay: "I was at the camp 2 nights in and I was in a worship sesh, it was so gnarly. I just felt the presence of Jesus. After that night it just changed so much I was just so stoked on everyday of life"….

William Temple once wrote: people say; ‘There cannot be a God of love, because if there was, he would look upon the world and his heart would break’… The church points to the cross and says; ‘It did break’… People cry; ‘It is God who made the world he should bear it’s load.’… The church points to the cross and says; ‘He did bear it’. Christ suffered once for all on the cross, he still weeps today with those who weep; he feels our pain and enters into our sorrows… However he doesn’t leave us there. God in Jesus draws near to us. He will be found by those who seek him, he binds up the broken hearts and replaces mourning for gladness.

Jay: “I think everyone’s looking for something and I was looking for something;… whether I’ve completely found that now I’m not sure yet. But I just know Jesus is keeping me going through that and that’s so sick”….

• Jer 29: 13b-14: you shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, said the LORD:
• Eph 2: 12-14: Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ,….. having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace,
• 1 Peter 2 :9-10: You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Written by Andrew Carruthers - Narrow Path Media 

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