Grief

Grief

To come to grief is to suffer disappointment, misfortune, or other trouble. Grief does not have only one cause, or one symptom. By definition, grief is ‘a keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow, painful regret’. (from dictionary.com) Whether the cause of your grieving is the loss of a job, your marriage, your health, or the death of a loved one, it can bring acute suffering. Often it includes disbelief because it arrives as the result of a sudden shift or change. How did this happen? How did I get to this point without warning? What am I to do with this new reality?

In your time of grief, you might be overwhelmed with feelings of sadness, loss of control, or helplessness. You might be experiencing abandonment or suffering with anxiety, sleeplessness, or loss of appetite. There are many ways to experience grief but a lack of hope often accompanies it. You are facing a new reality without the coping skills you need to navigate it. Your emotions are either so intense or so numb, that you do not recognize yourself in them. You cannot even imagine feeling differently, or being able to move on from this point. Yet, there is hope. Your heartbreak is not a permanent reality. Healing, comfort, and love do exist; even on this journey.

God is not far off and disinterested. He is right there with you. He is the friend that sticks closer than a brother.

Psalm 34:18-19 "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all."

Psalm 94:16-19 "Who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers? If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. When I thought, 'My foot slips,' your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul."

Here the Psalmist is saying that you can trust God. The writer knows He will come through for you, because He did it for him. God promises to lift your burdens and carry your pain. He will give you peace of mind when you rely on Him. God is our great comforter. May I suggest you pour out your heart to Him? Let these verses bring hope to your situation and draw your heavy heart to the one who heals and delivers.

Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."

John 16:33 “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

John 14:16-18 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”