“Silence is golden” they say and at times it is. There is a time to express and a time to not do so. But suffering silently seems to only produce more suffering when one does not have an outlet for that suffering. When we feel “unheard” or not understood, we tend to keep silent rather than try to explain or defend our pain to another.
Recently, I heard Yahweh say that what breaks His heart the most is the silent cry of His children. As I pondered on this thought, I thought of all the aborted babies who never had a voice, an opportunity to express the depth of pain they experienced being murdered in the womb. I also consider the children and adults being sold daily into the sex trade industry, those who have no advocate, no voice and to express displeasure in their bondage and pain only brings punishment and more pain. There are no words to express the depth of agony these go through in their lifetimes. Yet many of us seem to have areas of our hearts that we suffer in silence mostly because we do not feel those closest to us can understand nor even try to. So, we bottle it up and for some, it leads to premature self-inflicted pain and death.
As Christians, we have an advocate who sympathizes in our grief and pain for He Himself has suffered it all. Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet did not sin”. Jesus knew ridicule (Mark 15:19), He understood sorrow (Matthew 26:38) He knew rejection, disappointment, weariness, frustration, anger and poverty as well as temptation. But what He did understand was that He had a place to go, a place to bring it all and lay it at the feet of His Father for He understood the love of His Father allowed Him to “not be OK” all the time.
We may wonder “Is there anyone who can hear and understand us, anyone who will weep with us”? Much of the church’s teachings over the years has taken away our permission to “not be OK” all the time with sermons on complaining, we should ALWAYS be thankful even in our suffering. We should put on a smile and just “keep moving, keep pressing forward”. In part, this is true for we should have thankful hearts. But God invites us to bring ALL our stuff to Him even the complaints. When we do, we find a Friend, an Advocate who weeps with us, He grieves with us, just as much as He laughs with us and rejoices with us. Psalm 145:8-9 “But You O Lord are compassionate and gracious”. Psalm 86:15 “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him”. In fact, a study of the Psalms will demonstrate the compassion of God is referred to many times. Matthew 20:30-34 “As He approached the town gate, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother. He saw her and his heart went out to her and He healed her son”.
Just as “His heart went out to this mother”, His heart goes out to us in our suffering. We can trust Him with our deepest pain, the childhood abuse no one knows about, the rejection, abandonment, feeling unworthy of love, grief or loss of someone dear, feeling alone and empty, illness, whatever it is, He is our compassionate advocate and He sends His Holy Spirit to comfort us in our silent suffering as John 14:26 tells us. “But the Helper, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name will teach you all things and He will help you remember everything I have spoken”. As followers of Christ it is part of our living example of Him to walk out 2 Corinthians 1:4 which says: “He who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves received from Yahweh”.
Just as He draws near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18),he calls us to do the same. We become a conduit for others to go to our heavenly Father, and find comfort and healing for our souls so that we are silent no more. #MyGodisYahweh