Good Grief?

Have you known grief?  It is more than feeling sad, experiencing regret, or being blue. Grief is a range of emotions including sorrow, anger, and loss.  For some, grief is like a thunderstorm that passes with furious turbulence rather quickly. For others it is a hurricane that lingers, stormy and destructive.  Grief shows up at death. The aging often experience it. Divorce brings it home. Job loss or relocation can often provoke grief. With our aversion to pain, many people refuse to acknowledge or enter into their grief.  Distractions can bury it;   so we take a trip, or buy a car, or redecorate the house, or throw ourselves headlong into a project. We have medications that can be helpful but can also be misused to sidestep the necessary process. Grief is real. It is natural. And, it can help us to mature!

For the Christian, grief is one of the ways that God uses to break the grip of the love of temporary things so that we will reach out to take hold of what is lasting and eternal. Knowing this, a wise person will endure grief, learn from it, and grow through it. 

How? 

Be willing to let yourself enter into the sadness.  It hurts- badly!  Many of us refuse to let ourselves weep because we think others will see us as weak.  Jesus wept, not in self-pity which is weakness, but because His heart was broken by death, sin, and rebellion against God.  Grief often brings such darkness it seems we will never again see the light, but every night is followed by the dawn even in times of grief. 

Walk with others in your grief.  With the decay of circles of family and community, we have had to develop places where we can share our grief.  Churches have grief counseling. Hospitals often offer grief recovery groups.  They can be valuable, a place to talk openly. Families that allow their members to grieve, who talk together, pray together, and sometimes just walk it out together, with patient love, are part of the process.

Pray about your grief. "The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." (Psalm 34:17-18, NIV)  It is true! No one understands like Jesus!  Your tears are a language for Him.  If all you do in prayer for days is cry, He will not turn away from you.  The wisdom of God is found in Jesus’ amazing words. “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you." (Matthew 5:4, The Message) You’re probably more familiar with that passage in these words, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." (Matthew 5:4, NIV) Receiving those words demands deep faith! We would rather pray for a life free of things that make us grieve than to allow our hearts to be broken, wouldn’t we? Those who will not let their hearts be broken are doomed to living superficially, loving things that will slip through their fingers eventually regardless of their determination.

Put your hope in God! The Preacher tells us that there is "a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance." (Ecclesiastes 3:4, NIV) When the sorrows come, let them cause you to love the things that you can never lose and the One who holds life everlasting more.  Make active choices to join others in worship.  “But, I’ll cry.”  Perhaps you will, but if it is a community of God’s people, they love you more.  Read the promises of the Word about His restoration, about His eternal home, about His power to heal – and make those truths to live by.

Grief is hard, but it is not wasted.  So here is the word from the Word -  "Sing to the Lord, you saints of his; praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. … You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever." (Psalm 30:4-5, 11-12, NIV)
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The God Nobody Knows

Today in churches, on the front steps of city halls, in public parks, and homes Americans will observe the 64^th National Day of Prayer.  In spite of my reservations about mixing patriotism and prayer, I’m planning to participate.  No, I will no’t just pray “God bless America!”  I do pray that and I am thankful that He has ‘shed His grace’ on this great nation. Today, however, I will pray for this broken land, asking Him to reveal Himself in new ways, to draw us to repent, to turn our hearts to the Father.

The theme set for this day is “Lord, Hear Our Cry,” and we will turn our hearts and minds to Him who is higher than all governments, authorities, and human beings.  I Kings 8:28 is the source of the theme: “Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day.”   We need to cry out to Him!  For so many, even in America where churches dot the landscape, God has become the ‘God Nobody Knows.’  Paul visited Athens and saw their shrines but also their spiritual darkness.  He spoke in that city saying, "I found one inscribed, to the god nobody knows. I’m here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you’re dealing with. “The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn’t take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! … The unknown is now known, and he’s calling for a radical life-change. He has set a day when the entire human race will be judged and everything set right. And he has already appointed the judge, confirming him before everyone by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:23-32, The Message)

My prayer today is that He will make Himself known – to me and through me, that His Mighty Spirit will blow through this land, awakening the Church to her task of telling the Gospel, loving the lost, helping the sick, insisting on justice, and working for equity.  Would you join me in that hopeful prayer?  And, as the Spirit moves, the Light will spread from this nation to the corners of the earth!  Too grand a vision? Not at all.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it." (John 3:16-17, NLT)

May He break our hearts for our sins, for the world torn by war, for the poor who lack life’s basic needs, for those who live under the cruel hand of evil men. “Lord, Hear Our Cry!”

Dr. Jack Graham, the chair of this Day, offers this prayer.
Heavenly Father,We come to You in the Name that is above every name—Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Our hearts cry out to You.Knowing that You are a prayer-answering, faithful God—the One we trust in times like these—we ask that You renew our spirits, revive our churches, and heal our land.

We repent of our sins and ask for Your grace and power to save us.Hear our cry, oh God, and pour out Your Spirit upon us that we may walk in obedience to Your Word.We are desperate for Your tender mercies.We are broken and humbled before You.

Forgive us, and in the power of Your great love, lift us up to live in Your righteousness.We pray for our beloved nation.May we repent and return to You and be a light to the nations.And we pray for our leaders and ask that You give them wisdom and faith to follow You.Preserve and protect us, for You are our refuge and only hope.

Deliver us from all fears except to fear You, and may we courageously stand in the Truth that sets us free.We pray with expectant faith and grateful hearts.

In Jesus’ name, our Savior. Amen

Today, at Noon, wherever you may be, would you take a few moments to pray?  “Lord, Hear Our Cry.”

Here’s the word from the Word.
"Make this your common practice:  Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.  The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with." (James 5:16, The Message)

Where Inspiration and Choice Meet

“Do you have enough faith?” I asked myself in the quietness of the dawn. On the road of life ahead of me stands a range of mountains to climb, challenges for which I have few natural resources.  The ministry I serve needs to grow, but only God can make the seed of the Gospel take root and bring a harvest.  People for whom I care are wrestling with spiritual, emotional, and physical issues that my love alone cannot heal! Is it enough to say, “I trust God” or does faith require more?  Where do God’s inspiration and my choice meet to see His will accomplished here in this world?   Presumption, my choice alone, insists that God must endorse all my plans and efforts  if I just believe enough!   But, without eyes to ‘see’ what is presently over the horizon, God’s inspiration, I will not live in a way that honors Him.

Real faith rests on the Person of God, not on me.  My question about having enough faith is really one that is wrongly shaped. Instead of trying to convince myself about the possibilities that exist, I need to spend time with the One who creates those possibilities. If my life becomes a frenzy of activity, if my prayers are one long scream – ‘Answer me, God!’ – faith will die.  The Psalm says we can rest on Him. "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” (Psalm 91:1-2, NIV)  Serenity comes from living under His shadow. Easy to say, isn’t it?  But, oh so much more difficult to do when pressured by life’s trials!

When we settle ourselves on the person of God, submitted to Him, waiting for Him, ‘letting God, be God,’ we are able to hear the voice of the Spirit – one that brings assurance, one that encourages, one that guides us today.  When we know the will of God, we can go forward regardless of opposition, lack of funds, or limitations with a holy confidence that He will give us everything we need to do His will.  James reminds us of the folly of presumption that looks like faith but is not.  "Look here, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit." How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, "If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that." (James 4:13-15, NLT)

Jeremiah taught about living in God’s care this way:  "I went to the potter’s house, and sure enough, the potter was there, working away at his wheel. Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned out badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot. Then God’s Message came to me: "Can’t I do just as this potter does, people of Israel?" God’s Decree! "Watch this potter. In the same way that this potter works his clay, I work on you." (Jeremiah 18:3-6, The Message)   

Faith does not just say this , it acts on the reality that is unseen. God can do with us as He pleases.  He calls us into partnership with Him but does not make us god.   Jesus Christ taught consistently  that the choice of obedience is critical.   God allows us to resist His will, to walk away from His perfect plan OR to submit to Him and let Him shape us into a Masterpiece. Are you pliable in the hands of the Potter?  That, dear friend, is faith.   

Let God’s Word shape your understanding.  The word from the Word is a passage I love for what He declares.  No matter how many times I read it, it always inspires.  Read the truth slowly, savoring the revelation. "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 3:16-21, NIV)

Take my life, Lord, and use me. 
Lead me where You desire.
Keep me steady in trust equally in the storm and the sunshine, in winter and summer. 

To You be the glory.

In Jesus’ holy Name. Amen

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Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

You call me out upon the waters,

The great unknown, where feet may fail;

And there I find You in the mystery,

In oceans deep, my faith will stand.

And I will call upon Your name,

And keep my eyes above the waves.

When oceans rise,

My soul will rest in Your embrace,

For I am Yours and You are mine.

Your grace abounds in deepest waters.

Your sov'reign hand will be my guide.

Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me

You've never failed and You won't start now.

Spirit, lead me where my trust is without borders.

Let me walk upon the waters,

Wherever You would call me.

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior.

I will call upon Your name!

Keep my eyes above the waves!

My soul will rest in Your embrace,

I am Yours and You are mine.

Joel Houston | Matt Crocker | Salomon Ligthelm

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