The Purposeful Bottle of Tears

Verse for Today: Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Psalms 56:8 - You have taken account of my wanderings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in Your book?

It is amazing to realize that God knows and sees His children with all their concerns, cares, and all the emotions attached to it. He is with them at their going out and coming in. His eyes see us when we wander around in confusion, fear of the unknown future or because of the apprehensions about the fierce enemies around us. When we roam and drift, with unsettled emotions, and in our lonely moments when we shed tears of despair, He sees us and has pity on us. When the Psalmist goes through such experiences, his only consolation is that the Lord knows it all and He sees his pitiful situation. In fact, as we wander around, singing songs of comfort with tears in our eyes, the Lord does two wonderful things for us. First, He measures and keeps our tears in His bottle so that these can be used for refreshing others who come after us on the same track with weary hearts. Our experiences are thus used by the Lord to reassure them that the Lord will touch their lives just as He has touched our lives, as we had gone before them. So even our cries are used by the Lord as a testimony for His mercy and compassion to His children. Secondly, our cries are recorded in His book in Heaven. These tears are valuable to Him because these tell the story of the lives of His children and how they were comforted by the Lord. We see such stories of the tears of Moses, Joshua, Gideon, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ruth, Hannah, Nehemiah, Mordecai, Esther, Asaph, sons of Korah, Paul and scores of other children of God. These episodes in the lives of these children of God give us the confidence that we have a Father who hears our cries and sees our tears. Their stories reinforce our faith and trust in the Lord to keep crying and keep on shedding tears which are very valuable in His sight. When He sees our tears, His heart melts for us and He sympathizes with us. These tears put our needs and situations more strongly before the merciful Father about our heartaches and agonies. He will bring us back from our wanderings and settle our feet on the Rock to follow the way of the cross to go forward as His witnesses in this world.

Dear friend, are you wandering because you are out of focus with the narrow way in which you are placed by the Lord? Are you walking around because of a lack of clear understanding of the perfect will of the Father for you? Is your wandering because you are being distracted by the cares of life or the deceptions of the world and flesh for which you happened to have fallen? Are you being lured into comparing your misfortunes with the prosperity that you find among others who are far less godly than you are? Remember, you are called to walk the Calvary road and follow the footsteps of the Master. As you walk this narrow way, you will find difficult bends, with uneven surface, full of thorns and thistles and even sharp stones and glass peaces. You may also find the world and the flesh trying to mock you because you have chosen the difficult route when the broad way is just next door with all the comforts and enjoyment that the world could offer. But there is no need for you to look at that comfort zone and wonder, and wander away. You are called by the Lord to walk the Calvary road and suffer for the Master. You are placed as a rose or lily among the thorns. There might be wolves on the side of the track to terrorize you and the world offering to make you become prominent and popular on the broad way. But as you walk the difficult Calvary road, please remember that your Lord is with you and He is walking in front of you. He sees your struggles and tears. But He is holding you with His nail-pierced hands. It is a walk of tears. You can see the tears in His eyes as He cried for you at Gethsemane and on the cross. You are on this narrow way because He cried for you, and so it is only in the fitness of things if you cry in your sojourn. He knows all about it and wants to give you joy in spite of the tears in your eyes. He will wipe your tears and strengthen you to walk the extra mile for Him. Your tears are not wasted, but used by the Lord to strengthen others who are following the same path and coming after you. So, dear friend, take courage and be strong in the Lord and walk this road of your pilgrimage. Here you will find the Lord's comfort and peace, and you will see the results of your tears when you reach your destination.

Isaiah 25:8 - The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken.

Thought for Today
A tearful life of a child of God on earth is a fitting response to the Lord for the tears He shed on our behalf on the cross of Calvary and in the Garden of Gethsemane.

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