Dealing With Loss: Part 2 — Morning Devotions

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Dealing With Loss: Part 1 — Morning Devotions

Jesus is our best role model for combining faith and grief, as we see in John 11. When He saw Mary and Martha in anguish over the death of their brother Lazarus, He wept and groaned. Although Jesus knew He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, He still allowed Himself to feel – and express – the depths of human sorrow.

The human experience on earth

We can take comfort in knowing that Jesus has experienced all of our pain, including loss, rejection, betrayal, and dying. As our Saviour and Redeemer, He took all our sins to the cross and forgives us when we ask. As our Good Shepherd, He leads us safely through “the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4b). Remember, a shadow indicates that there is a light on the other side!

If you are grieving this morning, remember God is good at helping people. God made us. God created us with the capacity to enter relationships, to love, and to feel pain. When God felt the pain of his people being in bondage in Egypt and the grief over their being away from their home, God said, “I have heard the cries of my people…I have observed their misery… Indeed, I know their sufferings. I have come down to deliver them” (Exodus 3:7-8).

God knows our losses and God cares for us in our anguish. Isaiah spoke of a Messiah to come who would be “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (53:3).  When Jesus of Nazareth walked on the earth, he entered our humanity fully. In that shortest verse in the scripture, we learn so much about our Lord, “He wept” (John 11:35). He cried with Mary and Martha when their brother, his friend Lazarus died and he weeps with us when we lose a loved one. He blessed our tears when said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to serve a God who lacks compassion, connection, consolation, and the ability to comfort. Paul says in his writings … “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.”

It doesn’t get any better than that! Our merciful God works to console us and to redeem our grief, enabling us to console and comfort others in their grief! Maybe He is going to lead you to someone who is grief stricken today. Be ready to help.

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