Grief: December 10, 2012

TODAYS WORD FOR MONDAY DECEMBER 10, 2012

GRIEF

DEFINITION:

Deep mental anguish; deep sorrow; painful regret.

SCRIPTURE:

My soul weeps because of grief; strengthen me according to Your word. Psalm 119:28.

Sorrow is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better. Ecclesiastes 7:3.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

One of the most difficult experiences that one faces in life is the death of a family member or a close friend or acquaintance. We have experienced this several times in our immediate family losing dearly loved family members including our parents, a daughter-in-law and a nephew. The cause of the sorrow that comes with death is grief. We have experienced that the grief for one who has died knowing Jesus is entirely different from one who does not know Jesus.

As a minister we have witnessed, first hand, both situations. When a Christian is grieving for a person who never knew Jesus, the grief includes personal feelings as to whether you did all you could to see that that person knew the Lord and therefore will spend an eternity separated from God. When a believer dies, we as believers have the assurance that they are in a far better place. They are with their Lord and Savior in their heavenly home and we have the blessed hope of spending an eternity in heaven with them.

Job lost all his children and in his time of deepest grief he saw his Lord as never before. In Job 42:5 Job said “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see You.” In first reading the verse above from Ecclesiastes it is hard to understand how the writer could say, “Sorrow is better than laughter.” There is a lot for us to learn that sometimes we only learn through grief. The writer of Ecclesiastes teaches us that sorrow does a work in one’s heart that will make one a better person in the Lord. It is in times of grief that we need Jesus the most.

Isaiah describes Jesus as “a man of sorrows intimately acquainted with grief. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4). Jesus was perfect and without sin, yet He came to bear the consequences of the sins of all mankind and to bear all of our griefs and sorrows. How blessed every believer is to have such a wonderful Savior.

We have traveled to many areas of our world and have seen suffering and grief that has moved us to tears but what we have learned through these many experiences is that God used sorrow and grief to soften our hearts so that we would be more sensitive to the needs of the suffering. It taught us to pray for those living in sorrow and made us aware of a hurting world that Jesus died for. God wants each of us to remember that in times of grief and sorrow He is in control and our comforter and He wants us to be available to comfort others in their time of need.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in ISAIAH 53:6.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

PRAYER:

Help me today to be an encouragement to anyone that is facing grief and sorrow. Give me an opportunity to remind them that when all seems to be lost that they have not lost You. Help me to remember that I can learn more from sorrow than from laughter.