“Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.” (Psalm 130:1-2)

Taking on the saving faith in Christ Jesus is a spiritual commitment. It is a belief that brings enrichment to our lives through the power and grace afforded to us by the work of our Savior Jesus on the cross. But what we also know about the Christian faith is that it makes no promises regarding the health and wealth “good life” of this world. There are strong believers all over the world that suffer daily, not only for their commitment to the faith, but at times just to feed their families. There are spiritual warriors praying for the Lord’s will to be accomplished, all while being afflicted with sickness and starvation. Often this causes us to step back and cry out for justice. We just don’t understand why God would let, even His strongest believers, fall victim to the attacks of Satan. I myself have no words of wisdom in this area except to realize that God’s ways are still a mystery to us. But what I can say is that we are not alone in these feelings and we definitely weren’t the first to wrestle with the topic. Throughout the bible, we can read countless examples that detail the harsh and deplorable treatment of God’s people. At times, it was due to God turning His back on the people who themselves turned away from God. But there were also occurrences of God’s people, especially during the beginning of Christianity, were Christians were persecuted solely for being Christians. And through all of this, we find in today’s scripture the posture to take. We “cry out” to the Lord. Through prayer, we are to lament our situations to God. So today, take your fear, pain, and suffering to God. Cry out to the Lord and be honest and real with the God in Heaven. We don’t understand His ways, but we know He listens.