Have you cried more than usual of late? It’s ok. I am thinking that the church at the end of the age will be a crying church. Not necessarily a sad church, but a weeping church, given to many tears of intercession. When we think of prayer, we often think of prayers said with words with our head bowed. There is, however, something to be said for tears as prayer.
The Maranatha cry is, at its heart, a deep calling out for the Lord to return and set this crooked and broken world back in order. And what is the cry in our crying? It is a deep longing, groaning, or sighing—of words that cannot be uttered because they come from a place too raw. The Maranatha cry is, just that, a cry, a guttural calling out, a plea from our depths.
I was never a “crier” growing up. I think I identified with my left brain, but deep inside there was the “ugly crier” in me just waiting to have her chance. For a while the “all together” me fought against the “falling apart at the seams” me as I tried to make sense of the deep inner stirrings that were occurring in my heart. The tears won, whether I liked it or not, but I have come to like how I pray through my tears and see it as necessary and vital.
There is something very direct and powerful in our tears as we direct them to the throne of God. Crying in public still has a bit of a stigma attached to it, but I encourage you to start letting your tears become intercession wherever they may want to fall. We will be well past social protocol and acceptability before we are done. We will become “even more undignified than this.”[1]
You might think that women might cry more easily than men, but read your Bible and see Jacob weeping over the presumed loss of Joseph,[2] Joseph weeping over his found brothers,[3] David weeping when Ziklag was taken,[4] and David weeping over Absalom’s death.[5] God hears and blesses King Josiah, saying to him,
“Because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God, when you heard his words against this place, and against its inhabitants, and have humbled yourself before me, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you”[6]
Nehemiah weeps over the destroyed city of Jerusalem.[7] David weeps his way through the psalms. Jeremiah laments and weeps so much that his eyes seem like a fountain of tears.[8] Paul weeps over apostasy,[9] lost Israel,[10] and his utter love and compassion for the church of God.[11] John wept. Peter wept.
Jesus wept. Not just at Lazarus’s death and resurrection but as a lifestyle wept the One who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, was heard because of His godly fear.[12] Jesus knew that words did not always suffice; He interceded through vehement cries and tears. And Paul says we, too, take on the ministry of crying out for the sake of His Body, the church. He writes in Colossians,
“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.”[13]
As we live in a world that is increasingly capable of bringing us to tears, we should use our tears as battle cries and as love calls. Our tears can be battle cries to our victorious Lord of Hosts to come and save and restore and rule and reign on the earth so that the present evil is forever vanquished and the Kingdom rule of the Lord’s Christ can fully begin on earth. Our tears can also be love calls of a desperately lovesick Bride longing for her Bridegroom. Let us be desperate enough to have no other vision but the Coming One in view. Every time you are grieved at the ways of this evil world, let the tears you shed be prayers arising as incense to heaven.
Do you know that God numbers your tears?[14] He is touched by what touches us. May we be touched by what touches His heart! Let us implore Him to come to us. Let us cry day and night. May our tears be as incense rising to the throne. Cry out your tears in this fallen world, and let them have great intercessory meaning. When you are past words, intercede with your tears.
The Maranatha cry must arise like an unending chorus upon the earth. Did you think it would be only words? Cry out every last tear you have, but save just a few for the time when God Himself will wipe all the tears you have left from your eyes. As you see Him face to face, can you imagine the many reasons for your tears: love, relief, gratefulness, joy, thankfulness, and overwhelming desire finally fully satisfied?
It is a cliché to say that tears are the language of the heart, but they are a powerful and pure language when directed to the heart of God. Deep will cry to deep. It is sometimes the only way to communicate. It is often all you will have when you are past coherent thought, past understanding, past the comfortable illusion of feeling you are in control.
So begin to look at your tears as tools. Allow yourself to weep freely, deeply, letting your heart intercede for things too great for words, and for a better kingdom that is even now in the birth canal of all who long for His appearing.
Oh, and there is one more vitally important thing to cry about: as the time of Jacob’s Trouble comes upon Israel, she will be in great pain. The Almighty says of that time,
“Ask now, and see, whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor, and all faces turned pale?[15]
As Israel is bent over in agony, the Church will be called upon to weep for her. It will not be a small task but one that breaks the heart of both Israel and the Church so that tears will flow like a river. For Israel’s salvation, for the coming King to come in His glory, for all that is wrong to be righted, we must cry, day and night, “Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus.” The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.”[16] Cry out these beautiful words. Stand in the gap. Maranatha.
Rose-Marie Slosek came to know the Lord in the early seventies and has a passion for organic church and the maturing of the Body of Christ. She serves on the Emmaus Online Lead Team, leads Maranatha Northeast, and a local home fellowship. She can be reached at rmslosek@comcast.net.
[1] 2 Samuel 6:22
[2] Genesis 37:35
[3] Genesis 43:30
[4] 1 Samuel 30:4
[5] 2 Samuel18:33
[6] 2 Chronicles 34:27
[7] Nehemiah 1:4
[8] Jeremiah 9:1
[9] Philippians 3:18
[10] Romans 9:1-2
[11] 2 Corinthians 2:4
[12] Hebrews 5:7
[13] Colossians 1:24
[14] Psalm 56:8
[15] Jeremiah 30:6
[16] Revelation 22:17
