Out of the Depths I Cry
Introduction
Advent is an important time in the life of the church. Instead of being increasingly busy, frenzied, and cluttered like the world around us, it’s an opportunity for believers to remember God’s promise to send a Savior who would overcome sin and death forever. He kept that promise in Jesus Christ, and He will do it again in the second advent of Christ. That is what we are hoping for, longing for, and are now waiting patiently, but expectantly, for.
Psalm 130:1-8 (ESV)
We live in between the two advents of Christ, where light and love broke into the darkness and brokenness of the world. Jesus overcame the darkness and released healing into the brokenness of our lives and world in His first advent.
And yet…
We still see overwhelming darkness pervading our world and such depths of brokenness and pain still running rampant, invading our lives, destroying cultures and nations. We have moments, even seasons, where we feel like we are living in the dark, in the depths.
What do we do when we are “in the depths”?
How do we live while in the dark?
Praying from the “depths”
Psalm 130:1-2 (ESV)
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
In the depths, in the dark while we are waiting for the dawn, we pray. We learn to pray with eyes wide open, acknowledging the pain and brokenness in our lives and world, but being grounded in the hope of God fulfilling all of His promises in the second Advent of Jesus.
The scriptures do not shy away from sorrow and pain and desperation. It gives voice to them, it gives us a language for them, a language of prayer.
We live in between the two Advents, remembering the first Advent of Christ as we wait for the second. In that waiting, we acknowledge the tension, the tension between light breaking forth into the darkness and overcoming it, but not annihilating it yet. The darkness is still present, but we do not have to give it power. Healing has been unleashed into the world, but total restoration isn’t complete yet.
Psalm 137:1-4 (TPT), Psalm 69:1-3 (TPT), Psalm 88:1-6 (TPT)
In prayer, sorrow and pain are not the final resting place, the scriptures lead us through it and into trustful hope. In prayer, we are not primarily try to grasp for escape as much as we are learning to abide in Jesus while in the midst of the sorrow and pain that bring dark seasons into our lives.
The fruit borne from abiding in Jesus while in the dark, will shine the light of Christ the brightest.
Psalm 13:1-6 (ESV)
In prayer, we pour out our sorrow, our heart, our uncertainties, even our complaints before the Lord who hears us. But we do not stay there. By abiding in Jesus while in these difficult moments, we come to trust that God is faithful and committed in steadfast love to us.
Psalm 116:1-2 (TPT)
Psalm 56:8 (TPT)
Lamentations 3:55-57 (ESV)
The fruit borne from abiding in Jesus while in the dark, will shine the light of Christ the brightest.
Conclusion
By abiding in Jesus while in the depths, we learn trustful relationship. God will be faithful to His promises, trusting Him is nurtured when we are in the dark seasons of life where we are tempted to give up, yet put our hopes in Him. The fruit that comes from that abiding while in the dark will be the parts of our lives that shine the brightest for God’s glory.
The fruit borne from abiding in Jesus while in the dark, will shine the light of Christ the brightest.