Ep 206 A Legacy of a Full Cup of Joy, Part II

Things are out of our control. Circumstances do cause us grief and pain, tragedy does strike the good people as well as the bad. What can we do with our sorrow? We hope as Paul wrote in I Thess. 4:13 – “Do not grieve like the men who have no hope.”

We can think that as a good Christian, we should not be grieving—as if being sad is un-Christ-like.

Life IS hard, we’d be foolish not to embrace that fact, and the best way to get through grief is to grieve. But we grieve differently because we belong to God.

How does a follower of Jesus grieve differently? With hope in God who knows what’s ahead and loves us to the uttermost.

We are to come to Him with our grief, we are to hold on tight, as we grieve, and we are to look for God’s beauty and purpose amidst the ashes of pain.

I want to add something here that maybe you can relate to: I hate to see my kids suffer – I like to run around and manipulate all their circumstances and their friends and their teachers – just so that my kids don’t suffer pain – but God has something better in mind. He wants them to know Him through their pain. And that is far more beautiful and helpful than anything I can maneuver. They need to learn to know God personally; They need to learn for themselves that God’s joy underlies their grief and the best way for them to learn it, is for their mother to get out of the way of the Holy Spirit.

 

 (Of course, the Holy Spirit still needs my help with my husband . . . just kidding.)

• Joy comes from trusting and hoping in God
• Joy comes from communing and depending on God
• Joy comes from obedience and the main thing to obey is: "Love others as I have loved you." John 15

 

 

 

Sign up here to receive my 31 Days of Prayers: Love God, Love My Neighbor - It's Not Complicated (I make it complicated) One short prayer in your inbox for 31 days (free.)

Also in journal form - see SHOP. A gift for your soul just in time for the holidays. Quantities are limited.