My Bottle of Tears
Did you add to your bottle of tears today? We would love to pray for you.
“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.” (Psalm 56:8, NLT)
I confess I’m a crier. I cry at movies, at baseball games when the national anthem is played, at graduations, weddings, and funerals. I cry when I hear a sad story, when someone else cries, when I share what God has done in my life, when I’m angry, and even when I laugh hard enough.
I hate the fact that I cry so easily. It can be incredibly embarrassing for one thing. And for another, it puts people in an awkward position. But crying can be a good thing! God created tears – it is in His design that we cry.
I love the Psalms because they give us beautiful pictures of what our intimate relationship with God is like. And Psalm 56:8 (NLT) gives us one of those snapshots of God’s tenderness with us when we are experiencing incredible sorrow in our life.
“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.” (I’m sure I have a very BIG bottle!)
God not only keeps track of all our sorrows, hurts and heartaches, He has recorded them in His book. Every tear we’ve cried He has stored in our bottle, the one He keeps just for us.
I wonder, does my bottle have my name on it? Is it a special color? I wonder if God, my Father looks at my bottle full of tears and says, “Ah, that one is my daughter, Kristi’s! Her bottle of tears is so precious to me and I treasure each one. I am intimately acquainted with all her ways and I love her. When she has cried tears that no one sees, I have seen, I know and cherish each one because I cherish her.”
What a beautiful gentle picture this is of our God – a Father who tenderly collects our tears and holds them close to His heart.
Have you ever stopped to consider that God is keeping track of all your sorrows? He knows each one of them. He has seen you cry until you can’t cry any more. He has witnessed your heartache over a difficult child, a wayward spouse, a broken friendship, or the death of a loved one. He has seen your tears when you have cried all alone in the dark, not sure of where to turn or where to go. He has recorded each one in His book and collected your tears in the bottle He has just for you. How precious you are to Him!
Let the tears flow and know that your God cares for you intimately and with great passion!
Father, Thank you for seeing my tears and for the promise that I am never alone in my sorrow. Amen.
Question: We all experience tears and heartache in life. How do you reach out to your Savior in times of distress?
26 Responses to “My Bottle of Tears”
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Thank you so much for your “confession”. I, too, am a crier and feel the very same way about it. This is a beautiful devotional and gave me great comfort as soon as I read it. Thank you, Kristi.
Today I needed this exact blog!! Thank you.
Kristi, I like you am a crier. I truly enjoyed and was tremendously blessed by this devotional. Thank You for sharing your heart.
Thank you so much for this, Kristi! I can totally relate to you and to Chrissy, Holly, and Sherry. I needed to hear these words today. You reminded me to turn to my Saviour, the Comforter of my soul, the One who understands and is always here for me when I am feeling overwhelmed.
God bless you, Kristi. I appreciate you and I love the way you express your heart so honestly!
I am also a crier. I have a very sensitive heart that I always falls to crying at the very least of reason I could ever have. This devotional has been an encouragement and reminder that even though people I know might not be able to understand the reasons for my tears, God, our Heavenly Father will always be there to comfort and to embrace us with his loving arms whenever we are in pain. What a great assurance we can only have through Him! Amen….
Kristi, I can not even begin to imagine the size of the bottle our Savior is holding with all my tears. Tears of sorrow and tears of joy! But as we know when all is said and done…there will be no more pain, no more sorrow, and no more tears. Till then I sure do hope I shed less and less tears as I jounery on through this life down here and sing more and more unto Him who is with us all.
Even when others don’t understand your tears, our heavenly Father does. God’s love surrounded me as I read this devotional. Thank you!
Thank you so much, for all your prayers, encouragements, thoughts. Even though I’ve never ‘met’ you I am blessed to know you are all blessed sisters in Christ. I was blessed by this, I was just thinking about this verse/ thought the other day, as I was crying out to God about what I’ve been going through recently. I am actually not a crier, but I have cried a lot to God in the past! I was encouraged/ reminded/ humbled to remember that He says He keeps our tears… I pray God’s Presence is with us as we remember this. God bless you.
This is one of my favorite verses and I always say that my ‘bottle’ is probably a ten gallon drum because I too am a crier! But I love that God sees each one as precious!
I cried when I read this! Very touching and hopeful!!
I grew up being ridiculed for crying easily…the mole below my right eye was a constant reminder to me what a ‘wreck’ I was for crying so often. When I became a Christian, I found comfort crying in hiding, pouring my deepest sorrow to Jesus, the one person I know will never ridicule me for being that way. I learned since then to ask God to keep my heart safe in His hand everytime it felt like it was about to shatter into million pieces. Instead, He made it stronger each time – thank you, Lord :) I know my tears are precious to Him coz I read that verse before and ever since then have not been afraid to cry when I need to. Your article has affirmed such a wonderful assurance I cannot thank you more… God bless u.
It always bothers me that God is watching me suffer and cry over things i can’t do anything about. After i’ve exhausted myself with tears, i tell the LORD, “Here, take these tears and turn them into liquid prayers because i can’t do this thing anymore.” For me,i have to keep my ‘still and quiet spirit’ or just commit suicide.
i cry and i pray
thanks for reminding us, that God makes us ‘stronger’ when we give our ‘broken pieces’ to Him… how humbling.
I haven’t cried lately. Although, I wish I could…anger has gotten in the way. I say to the Lord, “Help me,…I feel so alone”.
Shavon, You are not alone in your tears. There have been many godly people who have also come to that place of feeling overwhelmed by sorrow and pain in life that is not of their own choosing. Certainly Job is a prime example; there was one point when he said, “May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, ‘A boy is born!’ That day– may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine upon it. May darkness and deep shadow claim it once more; may a cloud settle over it; may blackness overwhelm its light. That night– may thick darkness seize it; may it not be included among the days of the year nor be entered in any of the months. May that night be barren; may no shout of joy be heard in it. May those who curse days curse that day.” (Job 3:3-8) Jeremiah was another man of God who felt deep sorrow and cursed the day he was born, “Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, “A child is born to you– a son!” May that man be like the towns the LORD overthrew without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon. For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever. Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?” (Jeremiah 20:14-18) Hannah, the mother of Samuel, also had her time of great saddness because she was unable to have children. She was so broken that when she went to the Tabernacle to pray the priest Eli thought she was drunk. “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” (1Samuel 1:15-16) So don’t feel alone and don’t feel that God is offended by your grief.
But the more that you read about men and women like Job and Jeremiah and Hannah the more you will see how God has used that grief and pain in their lives to produce something amazing. I know that doesn’t make the sorrow that you feel right now any less but my prayer is that it encourages you to follow the example of these great men and women to focus your attention on God. These people were not afraid to pourt out their hearts to God. Sometimes it was in frustration and anger, but they never took their eyes off God to find thier own solution. They continued through their pain to push in to God and look to Him for thier relief.
And God did answer. When God finally answered Job in the middle of his pain Job was blown away by the intimacy of relationship with God. His response was, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” (Job 42:5) And out of Jeremiah’s lament we have this great hymn that has become such a favorite “Great is Thy Faithfulness”; “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.” (Lamentations 3:22-26) And when Hannah brings her answer to prayer, Samuel, to present him to the Lord for life-long service she proclaimed, “My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.” (1Samuel 2:1-2)
I encourage you to follow the examples of these great men and women, pour out your heart to God, trust that He alone will bring you hope, and wait for Him to answer your cry. He always does and when He does you will never be the same.
Let me invite you to share your pain with one of our prayer mentors and have them join you in prayer seeking God’s help for your sorrow. Go to http://powertochange.com/experience/need-prayer and share your prayer request.
Lord God I pray for Shavon and the great sorrow that she carries. I pray that she would find in You, great comfort and strength. I pray that she would have freedom to pour out her heart before you in honesty and in faith that You hear and that You will act in Your perfect time. I pray that You would send Your people to her to bring comfort and encouragement in this dark valley that she is in. Grant her request O Lord according to Your will and in Your perfect plan for her life. Amen.
Joan, the Lord knows your situation and He has heard your cry for help. Listen to His promise to you, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5) You are not alone because you are never out of God’s sight. He is an infinite God and so that means He has an infinite amount of time and energy and love to focus completely on you. I don’t know what your situation is but I know that God does. Continue to look to Him for your answer. Often He accomplishes giving comfort through other people. Let me invite you to talk with one of our online mentors. You will find in them a place to safely share the burden of your heart, a reminder of the faithfulness of God and a friend who will help you work through ways that God may be leading you to relief. You will find a Mentor Request Form at http://powertochange.com/experience/talk-to-a-mentor.
Sisters, and dear Jamie, thank you so much for taking the time to share all this. What a blessing. This brought tears to my heart and eyes… I have cried much in the past, and it’s funny you mentioned Job/ Jeremiah as they have been brought up in the past. I am humbled, as I remember that there were great men and women of God in the Bible, who were imperfect, people, who made mistakes and yet God for some reason chose to use them in great ways! Praise the Lord! I pray that He places His mighty, wonderful hands upon us… everyone reading this, and strengthens, encourages us, fills us with His Spirit, uses us, blesses us with His beautiful peace & wonderful kindness. May God find us where we are today, wherever we are, whether ‘pretty’ or not. God bless you, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
I have always been an anxious person since childhood and cried over everything…several losses, but 10 years ago, my precious brother took his life, his plate turned over and he couldn’t handle what the devil had put on it…I have cried everyday since then…I cry out to God and He comforts me, but then I see something or hear something that reminds me of my brother and I cry and my throat closes up…I feel like God calls me his whiny child…I pray for my brother’s salvation…I want to see him again…I know he loved our Lord and Savior…I am just scared of his not receiving salvation…please pray for me and my family…I am crying as I write this…my husband gets mad at me, because he doesn’t understand why I still cry, but he has never lost anyone…my mother died when I was 11, a drunk driver killed her…my oldest brother was killed several months later by being ran over by race cars…my oldest sister had cancer…my father had alzheimers…my 32 year old nephew died recently of pnemonia…my heart has endured alot, but my brother’s suicide pushed me over the brink…I will not kill myself…but it is a very sad consequence for those who do. Every 40 seconds in the world, someone in the world commits suicide…GOD PLEASE HAVE MERCY ON MY PRECIOUS BROTHER AND ALL THE ONES WHO WERE SO DESPERATE THAT THEY FELT THIS WAS THEIR ONLY CHOICE…This article helped me so much…I thought that my tear allotment had been depleted…I loved this article…THANK YOU!!!
Dear Melody, you have suffered so much loss in your life. No wonder you felt like your tear allotment had been depleted….but no, God continues to count each tear as precious. I always say that instead of saving mine in a bottle he must have 10 gallon drums for all the tears I’ve cried in my lifetime.
Please be encouraged, God says that nothing can separate us from his love – life can’t and death cant. If your brother loved our Lord and Savior then today he is singing with the angels. Not even taking his own life could separate him from the God he loved. We tend to grade sin on the curve, but remember God doesn’t. So rejoice that you will see him again.
I happened to google what does God do with my tears and this is the answer that came up. Thank you I needed to read this post almost a year later.
i hold back my tears for as long as i can. When i finally do cry, i feel better until my sinus gets too clogged up and i can’t breathe! Let me share something i used to do with my students in pre K…i brought in a little glass jar that fit comfortably under thier eyes on their precious lttle faces. When someone would hurt thier feelings or they would hurt them selves, i would grab the “Your Special Tears” jar and capture as many tears as i could off thier cheeks. When they got to see how important i felt their tears were, cared enough to “save” them, it did something to them. They would then look at the liquid, realize it was thier tears and well, they just felt comforted that i wouldn’t even let one of thier tears be wasted.
i so understand how Melody feels, as i come from a family of mental disorders, alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual molestation and more. God’s Word says ‘the end is better than the beginning” so i’m counting on this to come to pass. Basically, my whole life (i just turned 61) has been about grief, crying and even some hysteria blended in. All i can say is Heaven is going to be so worth it all. We have to press forward into Eternity where none of these hurts will be there …Thank You Jesus for Eternity! Bless us all. ~Hugs
I just wanted to say, God bless all you ladies. You are never alone. We all long for an intimate friend who will always pull us out of trouble and will always come to our rescue; a friend who can protect us and comfort us whenever we need it…a friend who will never turn his back on us…the thing is, most of the time we don’t realize that Jesus is that friend we long to have. Keep the faith ladies, God bless.
I have cried so much in this last 4 months over a hearache and what feels like the most devestating time of my life. I fell away from God for 3 years, and I met a guy who didnt serve him eather. He left me for 2 months and in that time I gave my life back to Jesus, and he couldnt understand, but we started to talk again he even went my church. Everything was ok for a couple of weeks he told me he was inlove with me and always was and he wanted to be here with me. Then one day not even two weeks later he disapeared no call back no txt he wouldnt pick up my calls. I guess being together until married was too hard, but he wasnt honest and just disapeared. I cried everyday and now its getting better, but I am still broken. I feel stupid so much for crying so much for a man that didnt love me enough, but God doesnt see it this way he is getting me through when I cry to him and call out his name. Amen thanks for post….
I know that God has better things for me in the future.
Romans 8:28
New International Version (NIV)
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.
Kirsten that is a wonderful promise in that verse isn’t it? Another one that gives me great hope of the plans and purposes of God is “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10) The New Living Translation says, “For we are God’s masterpiece.” God planned long ago of how He would use this to continue molding you into His masterpiece and all of the good things you would do because you have gone through this painful heartache.
Never call crying a stupid thing. It is an emotion that God Himself has and to ignore that is to try and squelch His Image that He has created in you. Allow Jesus to guide your emotions and control your emotions; that way you can know that you are feeling what He wants you to feel.
Father I pray for this dear sister who needs Your love and comfort right now. Let her know Your presence, hear Your voice and feel Your love for her. Continue to refine Your character in her and create in her Your masterpiece. In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.