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HOW TO READ THE BIBLE BETTER: 

AS YOU READ EACH PASSAGE, DO THE FOLLOWING:

ASK– God to connect with you in this moment. In prayer, start by slowing down and
inviting God to help you understand what this passage means for your life. Clear your
mind of all distractions and simply focus on what God wants to accomplish in this
moment.

READ– the selected section of Scripture slowly. At rst, read the whole passage while
taking notes of the words and phrases that stick out to you. Next, read it a second
time, pausing at the parts that stick out to you.

REFLECT– on what grabs you. What connections do you see at this point in your life?
How might God be speaking to you through these words? Imagine you’re living in the
time of Jesus. What would be your reaction to this passage? What does it mean for
you today?

RESPOND– to the Scripture. Speak directly to God about what’s on your mind and
heart. Look for ways to live out what resonated with you in two ways: individually and
with your group.

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 INTRO: HOW TO LAMENT

READ: Lamentations 1:2

Bitterly she weeps at night,

tears are on her cheeks.

People often think of the Bible as the encouraging verses found on inspirational
posters and co ee mugs from Christian bookstores. While Scripture is certainly packed
full of hope- lled promises, it also covers a much wider spectrum of human emotion.
The Bible speaks to sorrow, stress, grief, loss, pain, and even depression. Sometimes
the Word reads like an encouraging bumper sticker. Sometimes it reads like a eulogy
written by a mourning mother. Simply put, scripture can be sad. This is especially
evident in the Old Testament book of Lamentations.

Lamentations is a very di cult book to read. It is a collection of ve Hebrew poems

that were written during Jerusalem's traumatic destruction in 586 BC. This was the
biggest catastrophe in the nation's history. The armies of Babylon were on a warpath
and Jerusalem’s walls stood in their way. So what did they do? The Babylonians
burned the whole city of Jerusalem to the ground. They didn't just destroy the city;
they tortured the people in the process. They torched homes to the ground,
demolished the Holy Temple, murdered families in cold blood, and transformed a
thriving community into ruins. 

Jeremiah, the author of Lamentations, is known as the weeping prophet. Can you
blame him? He was called to pastor Israel through unthinkable tragedy and calamity.
As he pens these poems, you can feel the agony in his words. Each passage was
designed to help his people process their collective trauma.

Jeremiah doesn't try to make sense of the su ering. Instead, he simply writes his
petitions to God like a depressing term paper (that also rhymes). The weeping prophet
shows us something important. Our life will never be free of grieving, so we must learn
how to grieve with God.

This means that we should practice presenting our anger, pain, confusion, and agony
to God. Lamenting is all about laying it out there. Please enter this study with blunt
honesty. Take a long, hard look at your life to identify what is broken around you or
within you.

• It may be in your country.

• It may be in your community.

• It may be in your home.

• It may even be in your own heart. 


Once you have noticed and identi ed your particular pain point, re ect on how awful it
is. You heard me right. Think about it long and hard. Don't start giving answers,

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 denying its validity, or attempting to justify it. Just embrace the discomfort and stay
there longer than you usually do. Lamenting invites us to linger.

After your re ection, it's time for petition. In prayer, tell God why you think this
shouldn't be happening. Lamenting encourages us to approach prayer like a therapy
session. Good counselors don't try to x your problem; they just help you contextualize
them.

The same thing often happens when we approach God with our hard-to-change pain.
When we bring life's hard questions to God, He won't necessarily give us clear and
concise answers. He will give us comfort and clarity in the process, though. That's the
power of lamenting. It’s not about explanation; it’s about transformation.

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