Broken promises, stilted relationships, unexpected losses, crushed expectations, etc. will taint our happiness and contentment with our life and the people in it. These issues either have us running to the arms of our Lord, or curled up in bed in a fetal position, totally overwhelmed with depression and loneliness.
Feeling our grief is so important in our recovery process. Of course, some people have problems worse than ours, but that does not minimize our grief at all. Pain, disillusionment, unfulfilled needs, financial ruin, tragic loss, etc. can debilitate us emotionally, mentally, and physically.
At times, we subconsciously decide that God is not keeping up His end of our yoke with Him (Matthew 11:28-30), so we try to carry it alone. We lose contact with the hand of God, and we attempt to fix things our self. We end up exhausted and overcome by grief, despair, anger, etc.
Stubbornly, we refuse to reconnect with God, because He did not meet our preconceived expectations (Psalm 22:1; Habakkuk 1:2). We feel hopeless and alone. We either pridefully trudge on, adopt an addiction, or contemplate ending our life. What we fail to realize is that we may turn our back on God, but He never leaves or forsakes us (Hebrews 13:5).
He is not indifferent to our difficulty, but is working on our behalf, even during the trying times (2 Corinthians 4:18; Romans 8:28). We can give our self permission to feel our pain, then give it to the Lord and receive His love, unity, peace, and grace in return.
Grief gives us more compassion for others, and it provides us with a whole new ministry to His Body, our family, and our community for the glory of God's Kingdom. As we mature spiritually, we start to see His constant interaction with us, and we have the sudden awareness that we are never alone (Hebrews 13:5).
This is the lovely fact about grief: we do not have to experience it alone. As Born Again Believers, we are connected to Jesus and linked with Him. “His yoke is light, and He makes our burdens easier” (Matthew 11:28-30). God’s love and goodness never fail us (1 Corinthians 1:9).
Prayer:
Father God, remind us that when we attempt to control our life, it pops out of our grasp more often than not. Yet, when we realize that You have everything in Your control, we see that Your ways are more beneficial to us than our human endeavors. Help us to grow in our faith in Your faithfulness, to learn contentment in good times and bad, and to surrender the outcome of our experiences into Your loving hands.
We want to live in a bed of roses, but we forget that even roses have thorns. As we trust in You alone, we suddenly find our self entering Your rest, and accepting Your will for each moment that we live. We mature spiritual, learn contentment, and allow patience to perfect us so that we lack nothing. When we let go, and we allow You to have full control of our life, we experience Your peace and joy abounding in our soul.
Thought for the Day:
When other people see God’s peace revealed in us even through our trials, they also see His joy reproduced in our attitude, and see our dependence on His Spirit rather than on our human resources, and see God reflected in our life, and realize the truth of His existence, as well as His desire for everyone in the whole world to fully trust in Him for salvation; our patient and trusting example is a witness that we have taken on His yoke instead of one of our own making.
- 2 Peter 3:8-9
