Are you pretending that everything’s fine in your life, but on the inside you’re filled with painful emotions? Scriptures reveal to us that God meets us where we are, not where we pretend to be. Esther Fleece gives us full permission to get gut-level honest with God through the language of lament.

Rather than pretending that we are okay when we are not, we are invited to draw closer to God by giving a voice to the feelings we’ve kept inside and silenced for too long. Esther reflects on a counseling session where she learned how to express her emotions and lament to God for the first time.

“The Holy Spirit is a counselor and I believe that He gifts certain people, certain individuals, to walk with us when we can’t necessarily see all that going on. I was so grateful that God led me to go to a Christian counselor. It was actually in his office that he said, ‘The reason you’re relating to the Psalms is because of the laments that are in them.’”

“I had no idea what a lament was. He explained to me what lament was, but then he gave me a homework assignment. He said, ‘You need to go home tonight and you need to write out your laments and I want you to come up with at least three; three cries of your heart that you have, three disappointments that you have, three “why” questions that you have of God, and I want you to come back tomorrow and tell me what those are.’ I remember thinking, there’s no way I’m going to complain about God.”

“That night I was so stubborn, I was going to bed and I didn’t have any laments written out, and I couldn’t sleep. Finally at three o’clock in the morning when I cried out, ‘God, are you ever going to be merciful to me again? Did I lose your favor? Will you ever show your compassion for me again?’”

Esther began to weep and let her heart cry out to God on a very personal level. She reflects on these prayers of lament.

“Every lament that I cried out to God was already written in His scroll and was already recorded. They were prayers that He has already heard, so of course He doesn’t despise me in the midst of those prayers. God showed me that He doesn’t turn away from me when I lament, He actually draws near; He actually is close to the brokenhearted.”

“Lament is an honest cry of your heart. God wants you to release that, He wants you to go to Him in prayer.”

Is something hidden in your heart that you need to release today? Esther encourages you to get honest with God through the life-giving language of lament.


Esther Fleece is an international speaker and writer on millennials and faith, leadership and family, recognized among Christianity Today’s “Top 50 Women Shaping the Church and Culture” and CNN’s “Five Women in Religion to Watch.” She is author of the book .

The language of lament
Also on this edition of Neil Stavem
Michele Cushatt on revealing our brokenness