17 Truths You Need to Know About Your Tears

1. Your tears are seen by God. He doesn’t miss a single one.

“Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you” (2 Kings 20:5).

“You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” (Ps. 56:8).

Are you tempted to believe God doesn’t see or care about your pain? If so, how does that line up with this truth from His Word?

2. God has been known to change His mind as a result of our tears and prayers.

“Go and say to Hezekiah, thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life” (Isa. 38:5).

What are you asking and trusting God to change?

3. God weeps, too.

“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (Heb. 5:7).

4. There’s a difference between simply crying . . . and crying to God.

“My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God” (Job 16:20).

Are you aware of God while you’re crying?

5. Praying and tears go together.

“Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears!” (Ps. 39:12).

Are you praying while you’re crying?

6. Serving the Lord and tears go together.

“Serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials” (Acts 20:19).

“For three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears” (Acts 20:31).

How often does the work you are doing for God lead you to tears?

7. Loving others and tears go together.

“I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you” (2 Cor. 2:4).

If tears are any indication, how deeply do you love others?

8. We should cry over what breaks God’s heart.

“My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law” (Ps. 119:136).

Are your tears self-centered or God-centered?

9. Tears aren’t just for girls.

In Psalm 6:6, David says:

“I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.”

Have you believed the lie that it’s a weakness for guys to cry?

10. There will be seasons of nearly endless tears. But it’s just that. A season . . . that will turn into a new season.

“Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Ps. 30:5).

“Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him” (Ps. 126:5–6).

Will you choose to believe in your pain right now that life will not always be like this? Because it won’t be.

11. Sometimes the most appropriate response we can have is to cry.

“Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite!” (Lam. 2:18).

When is the last time you cried over the state of the world? Your nation? Your city? Your church? Your school? Your family?

12. Sometimes God doesn’t want us to cry anymore.

“Thus says the LORD: ‘Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the LORD, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy’” (Jer. 31:16).

Could it be that you have cried enough, that it is time to look ahead to what God will do?

13. Other people might be uncomfortable with your tears, but God is not.

“And standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. . . . Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair’” (Luke 7:38, 44).

You don’t have to hide your tears from God.

14. God comforts those who are hurting.

“God, who comforts the downcast” (2 Cor. 7:6).

“The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Ps. 34:18).

Are you allowing God to comfort you?

15. There are two kinds of tears: godly tears and worldly tears.

“Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Cor. 7:10).

Examine your tears. Are they godly or worldly? (Why are you crying?)

16. It is possible to cry without actually repenting of your sin.

“Afterward, when [Esau] desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears” (Heb. 12:17).

Have you done more than just cry? Have you repented of all known sin?

17. One day God Himself will wipe away the last of your tears.

“He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken” (Isa. 25:8).

Are you waiting and watching for Christ’s return with great hope?

Written by Paula Hendricks