As a child, I learned to eat whatever was served—an experience echoed in Ezekiel’s call to consume God’s word, even when it came in the form of a scroll filled with lament.

In the face of unexplainable tragedy, like the flood in Hunt, Texas, our most honest prayer may simply be, “Lord, have mercy.”

Our God is a God of strength and power. He is fully able to do great things and has done them time and time again. Believing this, we pray, “How long, O Lord, must this continue?”

I was 28 or 29 when I first memorized and prayed these verses. And through many seasons of suffering since then, I have come back to them again and again.