Savor Every Morsel of Sorrow and Comfort

In the past couple of weeks we have had three dear friends lose either a parent or a child in death. We have wept together and longed for Jesus.

I am thankful for the pain that God has allowed our own family to walk through, so that we are "able to comfort those who are in affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves [were] comforted by God." (II Corinthians 1:4)

The following is a wonderful quote from a mother & wife who lost her child (Hope) after caring for her for 199 days.

Ours is not a culture that is comfortable with sadness. Sadness is awkward. It is unsettling. It ebbs and flows and takes its own shape. It beckons to be shared. It comes out in tears, and we don't quite know what to do with those . . .

But, we are not alone in our sadness. In Isaiah 53:3, the Bible describes God's Son as "a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" (NKJV). And so it is in our sadness that we discover a new aspect of God's character and reach a new understanding of Him that we could not have known without loss. He is acquainted with grief. He understand. He's not trying to rush us through our sadness . . .

Do you know what it is like to groan with sorrow? Part of being human is that when you lose something or someone that is valuable to you, you agonize over that loss, and there is nothing wrong with that. Your tears do not reflect a lack of faith.

Rather than running from or trying to ignore your grief, would you lean into it? Would you allow it to accomplish its healing work in your heart? Would you confront your feelings of hopelessness and heartache with truths from God's Word so that it can become a healing power in your heart and mind?
Nancy Guthrie's, Holding on to Hope

Come Lord Jesus, come.