"A Wonderful Way to Start"

"Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee." (Psalms 102:1)
Seriously, if you are going to complain to God, you need make sure that He is listening! I know, to complain to God about anything seems a little dangerous, to say the least; but I really don't think that He minds to hear our complaints. He knows whatever it is that we are going to ask before we even can form the words in our mouth, because He sees our heart, so we already know that He listens. No, this is an act of submission; it's all about being humble and knowing who it is that is in charge, who it is that has the ability and the means to fix whatever it is that is causing our suffering. You know, our suffering is sometimes just in our minds. Don't get me wrong, I know that there are some very serious issues in many peoples lives, and suffering through something is not pleasant, especially when it involves life and death issues. But what I am trying to say involves a perspective, as in, which is the direction that we focus our attention, is it towards heaven, or is it focused upon the things of earth. If it's focused upon heaven, then things which would usually cause us to suffer, things like death and misery, would still have an impact upon our lives, but their impact would seem so much less threatening. However, if we focus upon the things of earth, even the little things that cause us to suffer can seem overwhelming and uncontrollable. No, I am talking about how easy it is to be subject to the harshness of life, things that cause us to feel as though God is either punishing us, or God has taken His hand off of our lives. First of all, I am not sure that God will punish us; He might discipline us, which is something that is done for correction; but to just punish us for the sake of causing us pain, that is not who God is or what He is about. So, if we are going to complain over something that we might think is punishment over something that we have done, then that sort of complaint needs to be directed elsewhere, like maybe towards ourselves. That is what James was talking about within that closing Scripture, James 4:5-10; that we need to have real sorrow over what our sins do and how they cause death and misery. That is why Jesus wept; He did not weep for His friend Lazarus; nor did He weep for those that mourned; He wept for what breaks the Father's heart, that His children are afflicted and die because of their sins. That is really what it's all about! Suffering is the result of a fallen world; if not for the fall of man, there would never be suffering and death. I am completely certain that God wants to hear our complaints! Just as a good doctor always ask, "Where does it hurt?" our Heavenly Father does the same, because He cares for our pain...
"Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy! I look to you for protection. I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until the danger passes by. I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me." (Psalms 57:1-3) NLT