Finding Jesus in Your Tears

(Excerpt from book: “Forgiving the Killer while grieving Uriah”, by Susan Free.)

Jesus knows every tear you have cried; He knows your every thought; and He knows what you are going through in your grief. He loves you more than any person on earth can ever love you. In Scripture, it reads:

You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. —Psalm 56:8

He has been pursuing you since the day you were born. When you were born, your name was written down in the Book of Life. God even knows how many hairs are on your head. God wants you to talk with Him; He wants a close relationship with you and wants to talk about everything in your life, including the little details.

It is important to come as you are; bring your tears, your sorrow, your depression, and your sinful nature, whether it is alcohol, drugs, infidelity, porn, stealing, hurts, grief, or any other brokenness. Share with Jesus your pain, and share with Him what you need now at this very moment. We are all children of God, and He loves it when we come to Him for healing.

Children are born in the image of God. A child is born through us, not to us. They are born in the image of God with their own spirit when they take their first breath.  Scripture says, “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).

God gifts us with children whom we are to take care of until they return to God’s care.  When a child goes to be with the Lord much sooner than we planned, we GRIEVE . . .and we don’t understand. We cry millions of tears, and our whole life is turned upside down. It is perfectly normal to ask, “Why, God? Why my beautiful daughter? Why my only precious son?” We don’t understand, and it may be something we won’t know this side of heaven until we get there ourselves. But what we do know is that when we get to heaven, it will be revealed to us, and it will be good. The reason our child died early will be shown to us. We will gently, with love, nod our heads in full approval of God’s deep love for us.

Jesus loves you. He loves everyone on earth, more than you can imagine. He has a deep, unconditional love for us. Most of us don’t feel worthy of this kind of love, so it can be difficult to accept. We all have some brokenness in our hearts. We may come from walks of life where we were hurt, abused, neglected, rejected, or made to feel unworthy. We need to heal our wounds, and the greatest and only Healer is Jesus. It is not a weakness to seek Jesus; it is the strength of His love for us. As we humble ourselves before the Lord, we break down the barrier that we can do it ourselves without any help.

Jesus knows you. Jesus unconditionally loves each person, and He gives us ‘free will’ to make the decision to come to know and love Him. He patiently waits, He surprises us with God winks, He heals, He sends friends to help, He protects, and He sends us love. Jesus is real. He is alive and active in each believer’s heart. At this moment, in your pain, you can talk to Him like you would a trusted friend. You don’t have to be in church; you don’t have to talk to a minister; you don’t have to be on your knees; just whisper His name, “Jesus.” Say it over and over, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” He will hear you.

Jesus hears you. Cry out to Him, and give Him all your hurts. Tell Him what you are going through, and ask for what you need. God is a loving God who knows before you ask, but we have to ask to show that we believe in Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. We have to trust Him. As a loving Father, He may not answer in the manner you want, but He will respond in the manner that is best for you. Remember, the absence of an answer does not mean He is not there. He is always with you.

Jesus is listening. We cry out, “How long shall we suffer?” This expresses the perpetual cry of every human heart who grieves. The cost of losing someone you love results in necessary grief. We wonder if the Lord hears us or even hears the desperation in our prayers. He does hear our prayers. Although we are impatient for God to act, we have to trust that He is at work. Work for good and not for evil.  Jesus is alive. He is at work even if we may not believe He cares. It may be hard to believe God is at work when we experience the injustice of losing a child. Emotions could include great sadness, depression, or even a loss of hope. Losing a child is one of the hardest types of grief to work through, yet God can help, and He will if you give Him a chance.

Jesus is prayer. Pray like you were talking to your best friend. The best prayer language is the words that desperately come out of your mouth, straight from your broken heart. They don’t have to be fancy or scriptural from the Bible. The Lord just wants to hear the simple prayers of the brokenhearted in their real words. Above all, give praise to the Lord. He is the Creator of heaven and earth. Let your emotions be known to God, and His peace will come upon you in the most profound way. He desires us to talk to Him. He wants a relationship with you.

Jesus is faith. We dedicate our lives to following Christ Jesus without seeing Him. It’s the same as breathing air; we don’t see the air, but we have faith that the air is available to breathe. We walk and breathe without questioning. Faith is the same thing; we live our lives trusting that God is there for us. We don’t have to see Him; we walk by faith.

The Scripture says, “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7 NKJV).

Jesus is our Savior. Would you like to invite Jesus into your heart for the very first time? All you have to do is just say these words. Say aloud, “Jesus, I invite You into my heart as my personal Lord and Savior. I believe You are the Son of God and that You died on the cross for my sins. I believe You were resurrected and rose again on the third day. Jesus, I repent of all my sins and I ask for forgiveness for anything that I have done that hurt You.”

Jesus is forgiveness. Ask Jesus to forgive you for any sin you have committed against Him. All humans have sinned because we were born sinners. As stated in the Bible, in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (NKJV).  If you say these words, believe them with all your heart, and go forth in life to consciously sin no more, you are saved! You are ‘born again’ as a new believer in Jesus Christ. You give up your old life and become a new person in Jesus Christ. You will spend eternity with Jesus. Eternity is forever!

When we are “born again,” we make a decision to give our lives over to God, asking for forgiveness for anything we did that was against God. We agree to follow Jesus and love Him with all of our heart, mind, and soul. He then forgives us, placing a love in our hearts for Him. This allows us to begin “forgiving others” for the sins others have committed against us.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

—John 14:6 NKJV