“Sing to the LORD praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers” (Jer. 20:13).These are the words fot he prophet in the midst of the persecution. This would have been hard times for Jeremiah. He had predicted the down fall of Judah to the king of Babylon and it had not come true. Thus giving reason for the Judeans to beat and plot to kill him. It was a time of great anger and fustration for the prophet. Jeremiah turns to the Lord in prayer. What comes out is not what we expect to come out of a great man of God. There is no pious uttering about how great the Lord is and how great Jeremiah’s faith is in the Lord. Instead we get the anger Jeremiah is feeling at the moment. We get the raw emotion of a man who has been sent to proclaim the Word of God to a people that do not watnt to hear it. We are often afraid to express oour emotions to God. We some how think we are going to anger God with our emotion. We think god does not already know. We think we are hiding them from God. But the truth is we are not hiding anything from God for He already know our emotions. Our emotions are given to us by God. We do not need to fear our emotions and think we do not have to have them. We can turn to Jesus to see He experiences the whole range of human emotion. Jesus is angery, happpy, weeps and etc. We can be assured if Jesus feels emotion it must not be sinful.We cannot confuse emotions with sinful thoughts. At times our emotions run us and lead us to think sinful thoughts. We think we want to destroy the one who has caused us harm. We might even think or say we want God to bring down His wrath upon someone. It does not always have to be anger sometimes it can be in the moments when we are at our weakest. A loved one has fallen ill or we have lost a job. Our feelings of hopelessness and frustration turn into our not trusting in the Lord to provide for us in all things. In these times we should rmember Jeremiah. He cries out in anger at the Lord. And in the midst of this cry of anger we hear the beautiful words of trust: “Sing to the LORD praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers” (Jer. 20:13). What great comfort these sweet words are to us in times of suffering. We are not left in our seemingly hopeless situation. We are not abandoned by God. God is there and delivers us from all evil. God is the one who defends us against all danger and guards and protects us from all evil. God is our heavenly Father who cares for us and delivers us. God delivers us from danger and suffering in our current lives but He does more then that. When He takes on flesh and blood He comes to deliver us from our greatest enemy. There on the cross we find the very reason for us to sing to the Lord and praises to the Lord. There in the death of Jesus we find a God who is in the midst of our suffering. A god who has not divorced Himself from His creation and the situation of His creation but has come down from heaven and joined us. Joined us so He could deliver us from our suffering and lead us into eternal life. Do not be afraid to express your anger and frustration with the Lord. Do not be afraid to have human emotion for they are give to you by God. Know you can have these feelings and still trust in the Lord. Still fear, love and trust in God above all things. This is where our anger and frustration, our sorrow and shame, our desperation and hopelessness come to find relief. It is here in the Lord finally we can turn to find deliverance from all the suffering the world can inflict on us. here we can join the Psalmist saying, “God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble” (Ps. 46:1). The peace of God, which surpassess all understanding, keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.