TEARS IN A BOTTLE

TEARS IN A BOTTLE

Psalms 56:8
You number my wanderings;
Put my tears into Your bottle;
Are they not in Your book?

Have you had a good cry recently? No, really, tears can be quite spiritual. As this scripture says, The Lord collects all of our tears in a bottle. I wonder if there is a giant room filled with bottles of tears in heaven? That would be quite an interesting place. When I think of spiritual tears I have to think of the woman at the pharisee’s house. She washed the Lord’s feet with her ointment and with her tears. She was so grateful for the mercy she had found in Christ that tears flowed from her eyes like a river. Her soul was being laid bare before The Lord. At the end of the day The Lord is not interested so much in our actions, He is all about our heart. When our heart is broken before Him, we pour out a fragrance on our Lord sweeter than the perfume this woman poured on His feet. Here is something Charles Spurgeon said about the blessing of spiritual tears.

“Prayers are instantly noticed in heaven. The moment Saul began to pray the Lord heard him. Here is comfort for the distressed but praying soul. Oftentimes a poor broken-hearted one bends his knee, but can only utter his wailing in the language of sighs and tears; yet that groan has made all the harps of heaven thrill with music; that tear has been caught by God and treasured in the lachrymatory of heaven. Thou puttest my tears into thy bottle, implies that they are caught as they flow. The suppliant, whose fears prevent his words, will be well understood by the Most High. He may only look up with misty eye; but prayer is the falling of a tear. Tears are the diamonds of heaven; sighs are a part of the music of Jehovah’s court, and are numbered with the sublimest strains that reach the majesty on high. Think not that your prayer, however weak or trembling, will be unregarded. Jacob’s ladder is lofty, but our prayers shall lean upon the Angel of the covenant and so climb its starry rounds. Our God not only hears prayer but also loves to hear it. He forgetteth not the cry of the humble.”

Of course we have to remember Mary’s act of worship just days before the crucifixion. Her heart was broken at the news of His coming, sacrificial death, her heart was flowing with that beautiful fragrance. She came into the room where Jesus had gathered with His disciples and then she broke the box. The house was filled with the fragrance of the spikenard. This broken alabaster box is a picture of our heart. In our heart we carry this great spiritual treasure. We have to break the box for the ointment to flow. There are many kinds of tears; tears of regret, tears of loneliness, tears of sorrow, tears of repentance and tears of joy. The Lord is storing your tears in His bottle. Maybe its time to wash His feet with our tears.