God's Word at Work

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
(Psalm 22:1)

Words to Live By, Hope

You're already aware that Jesus quoted this verse when he hung on the cross.

Aside from it being a prophetic utterance, it was still an agonizing and honest question voiced from the gut of the Son of Man as he died.

• What is amazing is that our Lord, even in the time of his deepest agony, was showing us the way.

The way in suffering is to keep voicing the Word of God.

• Something suffering-shaking happens when we handpick a psalm or some other portion of Scripture to give expression to our heart-wrenching questions.

• "For the word of God is living and active" (Heb. 4:12). Our words become alive and active because they are God's words. We are speaking God's language, echoing his own vocabulary back to him. When we wrap our heartache around a biblical psalm, it's a way of searching for Him. And when we seek, we will find (Matt. 7:7-8).

Gut-wrenching questions honor God.

Despair directed at God is a way of encountering him, opening ourselves up to the one and only Someone who can do something about our plight.

And when, with our questions, we either collide with the Almighty or merely bump up against him, we can never be the same. We never are when we experience God.

If you have something to voice to God today, borrow your words from a passage of Scripture.

God delights in his children when we speak his language.

• "Is not my word like fire,' declares the Lord, "and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?" (Jer. 23:29). God's word is powerful. Even the angels are moved into action at the mention of his Word (Ps. 103:20).
  

• Encounter the Lord today through his Word!

If I'm to speak your language, Lord, I need to know your Word. Direct me today to those passages through which I can voice my questions, gratitude, petitions, and praise to you. I'm looking forward to encountering you in your Word.

Joni Eareckson Tada

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