To the Ones Hurting as We Leave Thanksgiving and Enter into Advent

Thanksgiving begins my favorite time of year. A day filled with family and focused on gratitude comes just days before the season of Advent begins. The beauty and wonder and miracle of the season cannot be undone by commercialization. This is a season of grace. And there is grace in it all. The grace of Advent is slowly ushered in by the day dedicated to choosing gratitude. It is an extraordinary time of year. A holy time of year.

But even still, it can be hard. It can be very hard. 

Many are facing some tough stuff. Some very tough stuff. Death, divorce, disease, heartbreak, financial strain, loss, job stress, anxiety, addiction, and all sorts of other hardships and pains are wrecking havoc around us. There are crazy and scary and horrifying things happening around the world. 

Prayers seem unanswered. Hope seem lost. Strength seems gone.

So what do we do? How do you make it through the holidays when you feel you can't even make it through the day? How do you give thanks and be merry and bright when the pain and the loss are so real and constant? 

The very Spirit of the season whispers beneath the layers of busyness and retailers and expectations and pain and social media and gently declares there is still hope.

Gratitude can still be found. Joy can still be uncovered. Celebration can still occur.

Because the grace of this time is that God is with us. We are not alone in our suffering or our pain or our sorrows. 

The One who is the Word put on flesh and came to dwell with us. His dwelling is grace. And He continues to dwell with us as we read the Word. When the holy words wash over our weary hearts, joy and peace and hope begin to take over despair and disappointment and pain.

So maybe, by taking all the weight of the hard we are facing and laying it down at the feet of Jesus by praying through the Psalms we can begin to experience the miracle and the grace and the beauty of this season. Maybe the authenticity of Psalms can reignite hope and faith. These prayers are such a such reminder that we can be real before the Lord. He knows; He cares; He hears. And He works in our hearts even as we pray. 

Psalm 30 reminds us that we can praise and give thanks because joy is coming. Great joy is coming. We can cry out to the Lord and know He will hear and He will answer. He is the God that turns mourning into dancing and the dismay into gladness

1 ​I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up
    and have not let my foes rejoice over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
    and you have healed me.
3 O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;
    you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.
4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
    and give thanks to his holy name.
5 For his anger is but for a moment,
    and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
    but joy comes with the morning.
6 As for me, I said in my prosperity,
    “I shall never be moved.”
7 By your favor, O Lord,
    you made my mountain stand strong;
you hid your face;
    I was dismayed.
8 To you, O Lord, I cry,
    and to the Lord I plead for mercy:
9 “What profit is there in my death,
    if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
    Will it tell of your faithfulness?
10 Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me!
    O Lord, be my helper!”
11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
    you have loosed my sackcloth
    and clothed me with gladness,
12 that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
    O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

Psalm 40:1-3 speaks truth straight to the jaded soul. The Lord hears and He rescues and He restores. He redeems the time we spent in the pit of destruction and turns our cries into songs of praise. And He uses our redemption stories to redeem others. 

1 I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
    out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
    making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
    a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
    and put their trust in the Lord.

Psalm 57 reveals even in the midst of anguish, praise and thanksgiving can still happen. Even when escaping death, there is a song to sing. When hardships surround, faith can stand secure on the promises of God. 

1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
    for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
    till the storms of destruction pass by.
2 I cry out to God Most High,
    to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
3 He will send from heaven and save me;
    he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah
God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!
4 My soul is in the midst of lions;
    I lie down amid fiery beasts--
the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows,
    whose tongues are sharp swords.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
    Let your glory be over all the earth!
6 They set a net for my steps;
    my soul was bowed down.
They dug a pit in my way,
    but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah
7 My heart is steadfast, O God,
    my heart is steadfast!
I will sing and make melody!
8     Awake, my glory![b]
Awake, O harp and lyre!
    I will awake the dawn!
9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
    I will sing praises to you among the nations.
10 For your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
    your faithfulness to the clouds.
11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
    Let your glory be over all the earth!

Psalm 71 affirms when strength is gone, God remains. When we are crying out for help and for deliverance, we can still praise continually, hope continually, trust continually in the God who is steadfastly faithful. We can praise and hope and trust because He is steadfastly faithful. 

1 In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
    let me never be put to shame!
2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
    incline your ear to me, and save me!
3 Be to me a rock of refuge,
    to which I may continually come;
you have given the command to save me,
    for you are my rock and my fortress.
4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
    from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope,
    my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
6 Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
    you are he who took me from my mother's womb.
My praise is continually of you.
7 I have been as a portent to many,
    but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise,
    and with your glory all the day.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
    forsake me not when my strength is spent.
10 For my enemies speak concerning me;
    those who watch for my life consult together
11 and say, “God has forsaken him;
    pursue and seize him,
    for there is none to deliver him.”
12 O God, be not far from me;
    O my God, make haste to help me!
13 May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
    with scorn and disgrace may they be covered
    who seek my hurt.
14 But I will hope continually
    and will praise you yet more and more.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
    of your deeds of salvation all the day,
    for their number is past my knowledge.
16 With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;
    I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.
17 O God, from my youth you have taught me,
    and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
18 So even to old age and gray hairs,
    O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
    your power to all those to come.
19 Your righteousness, O God,
    reaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things,
    O God, who is like you?
20 You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
    will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
    you will bring me up again.
21 You will increase my greatness
    and comfort me again.
22 I will also praise you with the harp
    for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
    O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy,
    when I sing praises to you;
    my soul also, which you have redeemed.
24 And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long,
for they have been put to shame and disappointed
    who sought to do me hurt.

Friends, if you are hurting, cling to the Word ever so tightly. Rest in the truths that you are never alone and you are understood and you are loved. Oh friend, you are loved dearly and personally. And just keep looking up to Jesus from whatever pit you are in. Keep looking up, especially during this season, because the Grace that came down displays His grace all around. And He is holding you and keeping you and surrounding you. He is a present helper and faithful refuge. Joy and peace and hope are found in Him.

May the beauty and wonder and mystery of this season begin to fill our hearts with a renewed hope, a steadfast faith, and abundant joy as we soak up the promises and truths of the Word.