Tears Flow Freely [promises]

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“You’re blessed when tears flow freely. Joy comes with the morning,” Luke 6:21 NIV.

“If your heart is broken, you’ll find God right there…” Psalms 34:18.
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I could see the internal pressure mounting and knew he needed a release. He was doing his best to hide it, but his distress signals were apparent. There was departure from our normal bedtime routine which always included chatty ramblings about his day while he wrestled a brother to the ground. Instead, he was more guarded in his speech and taking offense easily. He was harboring burdens he needed permission to lay aside. A few well placed questions pulled back the scab on the wound he was hiding.

I remember vividly telling him that night, “It’s ok to cry. I know you’ve got a lot of bad feelings built up inside you right now. You’re like a tire with too much air in it ready to pop; we’ve got to let some of that air out and then you’ll feel better. I know you can’t cry like this at school but in the safety of your home, cuddled here at the end of the night with a Momma who loves you---this is the perfect time to let it out. Remember when God brings the rain He’s faithful to bring the rainbow. Jesus promised us that ‘we are blessed when our tears flow freely because joy comes in the morning’.”

The truth of that Scripture pierced his little heart. The tears flowed and then became a sob. We sat in the stillness of this moment giving all that he’d been holding in a chance to escape. Between sobs he spoke of what was burdening his heart and I just held him. When he was done crying I could see the physical relief being restored to his body and I prayed for him. Then we sat, him in my arms, very still while God brought the healing.

Later I prayed for myself to be aware of these times with my boys, my husband and myself when the pressure to hold it together needs a release valve. This is the time to allow the healing waters to flow. In the business of doing life it can be so easy to keep moving and doing instead of simply being in the presence of God and allowing Him to penetrate that stillness. He reveals in the stillness what will never be found in the race.

His command to ‘be still, and know that I am God,’ has never been an easy one for me to obey. One day I realized something I had missed in all the years of contemplating that passage. The comma. The comma had been trying to emphasize the separation; it had been trying to slow me down in my reading. The verse is not ‘be still and know that I am God.’ The verse is ‘be still, and know that I am God.’ First sit in the stillness, soak in the silence and be still. Come face to face with who I am and who I am becoming. Is it more godly or more worldly? Is more of my devotion given to building my kingdom or God’s? Answer these questions in the kind of honesty that stillness forces. Then come to know God in all His grandness and watch as the things that weigh me down begin to pale in the light of His glory.

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“Be still, and know that I am God,” Psalm 46:10.
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