ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

 PULELULU SUNE 3, 2026

SIOPE 29-31; FILIPAI 4:4-13

When darkness comes, do not spend your days grumbling to yourself or complaining to others, but rather cry out to the Lord.

‘I he taimi ‘oku to mai ai ‘a e po’uli, ‘oua te ke fakamoleki ho taimi ke ke ngulungulu pe launga ki he kakai kehee, ka ke tangi hake ki he ‘Otua.

Job provides us with powerful descriptions of the dark night of the soul, including the following:

And now my soul is poured out within me;

days of affliction have taken hold of me.

The night racks my bones,

and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.

With great force my garment is disfigured;

it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.

God has cast me into the mire,

and I have become like dust and ashes.

I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;

I stand, and you only look at me.

You have turned cruel to me;

with the might of your hand you persecute me.

You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,

and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.

For I know that you will bring me to death

and to the house appointed for all living.

Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,

and in his disaster cry for help? to gost

Did not I weep for him whose day was hard?

Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

But when I hoped for good, evil came,

and when I waited for light, darkness came.

My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;

days of affliction come to meet me.

I go about darkened, but not by the sun;

I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

I am a brother of jackals

and a companion of ostriches.

My skin turns black and falls from me,

and my bones burn with heat.

My lyre is turned to mourning,

and my pipe to the voice of those who weep. (Job 30:16-31)

Notice that Job here is not grumbling to himself or complaining to others. When trouble overtakes us, it is natural for complaint to be our default language. And this default language tends to silence prayer. Complaining to yourself does not change your circumstances, and it surely doesn't lift your soul or motivate you to persevere in the darkness. Grumbling to ourselves or others becomes a doxology of bitterness, replacing the language of prayer with the language of spiritual dissatisfaction.

Prayer acknowledges the harsh realities of the moment. It confesses an inability to alter what is not under our control, and it cries out to the one who is in control and has the power to intervene. Prayer builds the soul. It reminds us of God's existence and presence, the very things that darkness seems to cloud.

May God give us grace in the darkest moments of trouble to lift our cries and complaints to him, and may he use our prayers to remind us that he is near, that he hears us, and that our hope is found in him.