Scripture Reference: Revelation 5:4-5
As appropriate as all the types of weeping are, I want to draw your attention to another type of weeping, one that results in longing tears. 1 Samuel 1:7 describes the tears Hannah shed because she longed for God to bless her with a son. It says: “So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, that she provoked her; therefore she wept and did not eat.”
Hannah went to the house of the Lord every year to plead with God to give her a son. She longed for a son, so she prayed, fasted and wept.
When is the last time you longed for something so bad, that you wept as you prayed?
Do you long for the Lord that much? The psalmist wrote, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God” (Psalm 42:1).
A couple of years ago, I read an article about a group of Christian disciples called the “Wa People” in Burma: “Believers are living out a modern day Paul and Silas story as they sit chained to walls in their own filth knowing that imprisonment leads to infection and death often within a few months. Yet, they continue to praise God that they can suffer for the Kingdom’s sake. Many in prison have come to faith in Christ because of the gritty faith that continues to awe me. In Somalia out of eight converts, five were killed within days after their baptism by their own family members.”
Do you long to live for Christ as these believers do?
Do you long to see souls saved?
When is the last time you wept over a lost soul?
It is as appropriate to weep over a soul going to hell as it is to weep at the loss of a loved one like David did, or when losing a blessing like Esau did, or when failing Christ like Peter did. We weep whenever we suffer a personal loss. Is it personal enough to you that your fellow “man” is perishing for all eternity? Is it personal enough to you to realize that without Christ, your family, friends, and neighbors will miss heaven?
One day they will stand in front of Christ Jesus and His Word tells us: “Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ “ (Matthew 7:23). What heart-wrenching words that will be! Have you, as believers, tried to imagine the impact, the eternal significance of those spoken words? Doesn’t that make you want to weep?
Matthew’s next chapter tells us the impact of Christ Jesus’ words when they begin an eternity in hell . . . they will weep. “But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12).
Perhaps if we spend some time weeping over souls today, they won’t have to weep and gnash their teeth throughout eternity.
Will you join me in caring enough for lost souls that yours and my prayers will turn into tears for their eternal salvation?
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 