How to Praise God When Life Hurts
The day my grandmother died I went to church. I remember waking up that Sunday morning to my phone ringing. When I saw my mom’s number I was confused. I would see her shortly at church. Why was she calling?
When Life Hurts
Through tears, she told me that my grandmother had passed away during the night. Getting up, getting ready, and heading off to church was the last thing I wanted to do. Everything felt fresh and raw. The family would meet later that day, so we had time to go to the morning service.
I remember coming into the sanctuary and sitting down on the blue cushioned chairs. I sat there alone because my children were in the nursery and my husband was in the choir. A very kind woman walked passed me, turned around, and asked a simple question, “How is your grandmother doing?”
My grandmother had been battling cancer for only four months, and we all knew that her time was short. At that question, my tears, which I had held in, streamed down my face. “She passed away last night,” I choked out. Her eyes softened and offered her condolences.
During the service I stood up when everyone was singing but my mouth was clamped shut. The praise and worship felt empty. Grief swallowed me that morning and praising God was the last thing I wanted.
Unable to Praise
In Psalm 42 we see a desperate cry of lament. Grief, sorrow, and immense pain are seen in the phrase, “My tears have been my food day and night.” (Psalm 42:3) The author cries out to God, searching for hope. His soul has been “cast down.”
Grief clouded my thoughts that Sunday morning, and since that day there have been other Sundays I have come to church unable to praise God. You and I are human, living in a broken world. No one is immune to suffering, and Christians are often criticized for always trying to put on a happy face when life is anything but joyful.
As I sat there filled with grief that Sunday, I remembered the words of Psalm 42:5. The psalmist recognized that his heart and soul had lost hope, but not completely. He says, “For I shall yet praise Him.” Those are future tense words. He is saying, “I can’t praise God right now, but I know there will be a time I will praise Him.
The author preached to himself in this psalm and we can too. That Sunday I went to church surrounded by grief, but I was not abandoned. God had not left me and He doesn’t leave you either, friend. Sometimes we can’t lift our hands in praise, but we can bow our hearts before God. We can hang on to the hope that praise will return.
Hope is believing in something we can’t see. We might not be able to see how God will help us praise Him, but He will. God has promised that joy comes in the morning. The night seasons will linger, but even then God is with us.
Meet Sarah Frazer
Sarah Frazer is the author of I Didn’t Sign Up for This and co-host of Psalms to Help You Sleep podcast. She hopes to encourage women to discover God’s goodness when their stories shift. She and her husband live in the Appalachian hills with their five children. Her work has been featured on Crosswalk, Proverbs 31 Ministries, YouVersion, Gospel Centered Discipleship, and Christianity Today. Connect with Sarah by visiting sarahefrazer.com or by searching @sarahefrazer on social media.
Where to find her . . .
Begin Within is a series to inspire a year-round lifestyle of gratitude that will impact not only your own life, but the lives of your neighbors as well. Gratitude is a theme we talk about often around here because it ties so closely into other missional living rhythms. Practicing gratitude reminds to keep our hearts soft and expectant and our eyes open. Therefore, the more we embrace gratitude, the easier it becomes to truly see our neighbors and where we can join what God is already doing in our neighborhoods.
If you would like to contribute to Begin Within, you can find the submission guidelines here.
