Sometimes it may feel that our prayers go unanswered. We pray and pray over something and it might seem that God doesn’t listen. We pray and the person we’re praying for gets even sicker and even dies. We pray and the couple we are praying for get a divorce anyway. We pray and the job we applied for goes to someone else anyway. Time goes by and nothing has happened and we wonder if God is really even there. Do you ever ask, if God ever listens to your lamentations?
Don’t think you are the only one that has ever felt this way or had these questions. Jeremiah is an example of a someone who had these kind of thoughts. Let me set the stage for you.
The Kingdom of Judah was forced to pay tribute to Babylon and its king. Zedekiah, the king of Judah, decided to break his agreement with Nebuchadnezzar and put the tribute to an end. The Babylonians responded by surrounding Jerusalem and laying siege to it for eighteen months in order to starve the people into submission. Eventually the Babylonians killed most of the people, destroyed the temple, and burned most of the city to the ground.
After the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in 587 BC Jeremiah cries out…
How lonely sits the city
That was full of people!
She has become like a widow
Who was once great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the provinces
Has become a forced laborer!
She weeps bitterly in the night
And her tears are on her cheeks;
She has none to comfort her
Among all her lovers.
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies.
Judah has gone into exile under affliction
And under harsh servitude;
She dwells among the nations,
But she has found no rest;
All her pursuers have overtaken her
In the midst of distress.
~ Lamentations 1:1-3
Jeremiah then describes God as the one who is doing this to Jerusalem because God is allowing this to happen. Jeremiah says they have cried out and prayed for relief but God has not answered. Jeremiah cries out…
How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion
With a cloud in His anger!
He has cast from heaven to earth
The glory of Israel,
And has not remembered His footstool
In the day of His anger.
~ Lamentations 2:1
Jeremiah goes on to describe the horrible suffering experienced by the people. He talks about how the people are starving so much so that mothers are even killing and eating their own children (Lamentations 4:9-10). He describes his own emotions about God because of the events in Jerusalem.
Here is a good man who has done God’s will and is dedicated His life to serving the Lord. However, the people are dying, the nation is taken over by an ungodly people, the temple is desecrated, and his own body and emotions are suffering. All of this is going on even while Jeremiah’s prayers are pleading for relief. In the middle of this crisis Jeremiah expresses his continued belief that God is merciful and full of love. Jeremiah cries out…
This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I have hope in Him.”
~ Lamentations 3:21-24
What can we learn from all this?
- Even if God is silent He is never absent.
- It is therapeutic to let God know what we are going through.
- God knows what He is doing and He has a purpose.
These are all lessons we need to remember if it feels like God doesn’t listen to us in our times of trouble. Prayer is always effective and appropriate. So go on ahead and cry out with lamentations. Even if you think God is silent, pray anyway and cry out to God because He listens to your lamentations.
God loves you and so do I,
Alexander Mills