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Most of us spend our lives trying to avoid pain. We distract, suppress, or power through—but the pain doesn’t leave. It simmers beneath the surface, waiting for the right moment to bubble up as anxiety, anger, or shame.
We often assume the Bible doesn’t say much about what to do with pain. But what if it gave us a whole book on how to endure, process, and understand it?
That’s what the book of Lamentations is.
Written to a bitter, broken people after Jerusalem was destroyed, Lamentations offers more than poetry, it gives us a vocabulary for suffering. It permits us to feel. To cry out. To hope again.
Today, let’s walk through chapter 1 together and learn how to begin lamenting in a way that leads to healing and restoration.
1. Call Out Pain
Lamentations 1:1–7
Jeremiah, likely the author, wrote this acrostic poem in the ashes of Jerusalem’s fall to Babylon. The temple was gone. The people were exiled. Life, as they knew it, had been torn apart. And instead of skipping past the grief, Jeremiah names it.
Words like lonely, widow, slave, weeping, exile, and enemies fill these verses.
Jeremiah doesn’t sugarcoat what happened. He doesn’t hide the pain. He stares it in the face and gives it a voice. And by doing so, he teaches us something vital: We must name our pain before we can heal from it.
Many of us were taught to stuff down emotions, especially grief. Maybe you grew up hearing “boys don’t cry” or “get over it.” But God invites something better.
Lament begins when we call out what is broken in our lives and our world.
What pain do you need to name before God today?
2. Confess Sin to God
Lamentations 1:8–11
In verse 8, Jeremiah doesn’t beat around the bush:
“Jerusalem has sinned grievously.”
Yes, they were suffering, but they were also responsible. God had sent prophet after prophet, warning them to turn back. But they didn’t listen. Now they sit in the aftermath.
Sin has consequences. God judges sin. That’s not because He’s cruel, but because He is just. He loves too much to let sin destroy His people forever.
Jeremiah uses the image of a dirty skirt, stained by shame, to describe their condition. But this judgment wasn’t the end. It was the beginning of restoration.
Just like Judah, we must confess our sins, not to avoid punishment, but to restore relationship.
Like a parent who already knows what their child did, God longs for us to come clean, not so He can scold us, but so He can embrace us.
Lament includes confession. But I want you to think of it this way: Confession is connection.
What sins do you need to bring into God’s light today?
3. Cling to God’s Goodness
Lamentations 1:18
After calling out the pain and confessing the sin, Jeremiah turns to the character of God:
“The Lord is just.”
Even amid devastation, Jeremiah affirms that God was right to do what He did. That’s a hard truth in our culture. We like a God of love, not a God of justice. But we can’t separate the two.
God is slow to anger, but He does not ignore rebellion. He gave Judah every chance to turn around. When they refused, He responded—not to destroy them permanently, but to bring them back.
Healing comes when we acknowledge who God is, not who we want Him to be. We stop blaming and start trusting.
True lament lifts our eyes from our sorrow to the justice, mercy, and goodness of God.
Can you say, even in sorrow, “The Lord is just”?
Final Thoughts: A Path Forward
Whatever you’re going through today, whether personal heartbreak or communal grief, Lamentations invites you to a holy process:
Call out your pain.
Confess your sin.
Cling to God’s goodness.
This isn’t a quick fix. Lament is slow. It’s honest. But it is also a path that leads us to Jesus.
Jesus is the fulfillment of lament. He entered our pain. He bore God’s wrath for sin on the cross. He knows sorrow and walks through it with us.
In our isolation, God came near.
In our brokenness, He offers healing.
Lament isn’t the end of the story, but it is a necessary chapter. Let it be the beginning of restoration.