There is a time for everything, including a time to weep and mourn (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4). It is appropriate to weep: 1.When God's people face times of crisis, when their well-being is at stake. The prophet Jeremiah called for "the mourning women" and "skillful wailing women" to cry (Jeremiah 9:17) because of the coming destruction of Jerusalem as a punishment for the people's idolatry. Fasting, expressions of brokenness, and earnest prayer often accompany godly mourning (Esther 4:1, 3; Nehemiah 1:3-4). 2.When professing believers live as God's enemies-enemies of the cross of Christ (Philippians 3:18). 3.When God's law is rejected or not obeyed (Psalm 119:136). There are TWO KINDS of weeping mentioned in Hosea 7:14: "They do not cry out to Me from their hearts, but wail upon their beds." What is the difference between these two kinds of weeping?Not all weeping is productive. The person who wails upon his bed is remorseful. But he is not willing to move. He is not willing to get out of bed to go and do the right thing. He's not willing to change. Whereas the person who cries out to God from his heart demonstrates true repentance. He has a repentant heart and is really willing to forsake evil. Those who wail upon their bed cry out for relief from the pressure and from the problems. But in their hearts, they are still defiant against God's authority. They haven't surrendered. Those who cry our from their hearts cry out in surrender. Lord, You win. Have Your way. Those who wail upon their beds focus upon their pain and their woundedness and their problems. "I hate being miserable." That's the person who's wailing upon the bed. But those who cry out from their heart acknowledged their deepest problem is not their woundedness, it's not their pain. It's their sinfulness. It's their sinful reaction and responses to the troubles in their lives that are really concerning them. Those who wail upon their beds are still blaming others. I wouldn't be having all of these problems, if it weren't for my husband or my teenagers, or my mother, or some other circumstance in my life. They're just wailing upon their bed. It's not doing any good. It's making a lot of noise. They may seem to be repentant, but God knows that they are not crying out from their heart. Those who cry out from their heart take personal responsibility for their own lives, for their own failures, and for their own sins. Those who wail upon their beds are asking the question, "How does this affect me?" Whereas those who cry out from their heart grieve because of how a holy God has been offended. Those who wail upon their beds cry out for relief. Whereas those who cry out from their hearts are crying out to God for their mercy. They're saying, "Lord, have mercy upon me. It's my condition that needs to be addressed. I'm not just wanting relief from my pain. I'm wanting to be delivered from my sinful, selfish, demanding heart." That's crying out from my heart. As we look at the crisis in our nation, we see some tears. We see some national disasters and invariably following those disasters, there are tears. I think we have to ask what kind of tears are they? Are we just wailing upon our beds as a nation or are we crying out from our hearts? Do we want to be just delivered from the pain or do we want to get right with God? Actually, what concerns me more is not what kind of tears is our nation shedding. Our nation doesn't know God as a whole and can't be expected to cry true repentance. The bigger question to me is what kind of tears am I shedding?When I weep, when you weep, when our circumstances drive us to tears, are we wailing from our beds in self-centered, demanding ways? Just get me out of this pain. Get me out of this marriage. Get me out of this problem. I can't go on with this any longer. Are we wailing from our beds or are we crying out from our hearts and saying, "Oh, God, whatever it takes in my life to sanctify me, to purify my heart, to make me like Jesus, that's what I want. If it means that I have to endure pain, for my faith to be purified, for You to be glorified and for me to be an instrument of healing and help in the lives of others, then God I'm willing to endure that. I'm crying out from my heart and saying that what matters most to me is for You to be glorified and that my life would be pleasing to You. Are you crying tears of true repentance or are you wailing upon your bed making a lot of noise, seeming to be concerned? Are you really mostly concerned about you? Are they tears of true repentance, crying out to God for mercy? Those are the tears that God hears, honors and blesses. Those are the tears that will reap a harvest of joy in time. ~Nancy DeMoss
