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Tears As Prayers
Sometimes tears are prayers. Some seasons of loss, pain and grief leave us with no words, or even the capacity to utter words. "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh" declared the Lord Jesus, but if the heart is broken, it may feel the deep anguish expressed by the Psalmist "I am so troubled that I cannot speak" (Psalm 77:4). In such times, the heart may only be able to cry, and so it is that sometimes tears are prayers.
Our Heavenly Father looks with great compassion upon the broken and bewildered heart that does not know the reasons for the things that have befallen it. If it is also a trusting, submitted heart, the Holy Spirit works therein to form communication beyond understanding and words.
"The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered" (Romans 8:26).
Our sorrows and tears, united with the Holy Spirit's pleas on our behalf, become perhaps the most eloquent prayers we will ever direct toward the throne of Heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ alone receives all glory for such a work of sympathetic grace as He embraces and carries His lamb too wounded to do more than bleat. Perhaps most importantly, few prayers are more assured of answer than the those of our tears. Just as the loving human parent - and infinitely more - the Father of Heaven responds to the crying of His children with devoted and concerned attention to our need. In perfect wisdom, He knows how to comfort our hearts, how to deliver us in His time and way, and how to weave "all things together for good" - including especially those difficult but blessed times when our tears are prayers.
"The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping."
(Psalm 6:8)
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