Food for ThoughtMatthew 5:4 Grief
Food for Thought
An all-creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

By Marni Montanez

Matthew 5:4 Contemporary English Version

God blesses those people who grieve.  They will find comfort!

Grief can suck us into a vacuum of hopelessness, and emotional pain so intense and so deep that it affects us physically.  A lump in our stomach replaces our appetite and it becomes difficult to sleep.  It’s like being encased in darkness.    A shadow overtakes us and time stands still. There is only one way out….to cry;  to sob so uncontrollably that it purges the poison that seems to have filled our heart.   These tears may continue for days, weeks or even months, but they are the expression of our broken heart.

Words cannot touch the deep sorrow and well meaning people who say things with good intentions to encourage, are not able to ease that pain.   Not everyone has experienced such depth of darkness so it would be difficult for them to understand what you are feeling.   There is no escape from grief. There is no way to stop the pain. Trying to ignore it or deny it only delays the healing process.  God is the only One who has the ability  to gently move into that place of raw emotion.  With great care He touches the depth of pain we seem to be drowning in and slowly and gently He guides us back to the safety of the shoreline.  

When He created human beings, He put in us all the strength and ability we need to survive these times.   It does not feel like we can make it and for that season we are only able to survive the moment and then eventually it evolves into making it through a day and then two until we can move smoothly through life and even laugh again.  The loss is forever there, but the intensity of emotions lessens.  

Everyone grieves differently and for different reasons.  God  knows the exact kind of comfort we need and He is at the ready to put His big arms around us and give us soothing words of hope and comfort.    He may send someone to speak words of love or cry with us; He may supernaturally comfort us.  Either way He will not leave us alone in our distress.  

Grieving is not a negative thing.  Through this difficult time, we are raw and exhausted from all the tears that are shed.  This leaves us vulnerable to the Holy Spirit and to His deep comfort.

There is no longer resistance and God is able to lift us up.  

Challenge:  During your time of grieving, you must allow yourself to feel and express all the different emotions in the process of grief.   There is only one way out of grief and that is on the long dark road of pain and sorrow on the path of many tears.  But you don’t have to do it alone…..God will be there for you, just reach out and ask Him for His comfort.   Allow Him to bathe your broken heart in His healing ointment.

God bless

Marni

See: Our Visitors' Comments
Go on to: Matthew 5:20 Righteousness
Return to: Food for Thought
Return to: Christian Living Articles

lamb-rightThe purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not Christian.