Sometimes when you are angry or exhausted from life, you don’t know how to approach God. It has been said when times get hard, we should pray. But what should we do when we don’t know what to pray? Some sit in silence out of reverence for the Lord and wait patiently for him. (Most people are not good with that approach.) In the Black churches where I was raised, people would sometimes consider, “If I can’t say a word, then I’ll just wave my hands,” or “When you don’t have the words, simply moan or cry out to God with groans that cannot be uttered.” Later, I discovered that other people would simply shout or dance before the Lord like David did with all freedom until their legs burned and they could no longer hold themselves up. Only then would they collapse to rest in peace knowing that in spite of their current circumstance, God is God and he is at work in the midst of their situation.

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