It’s 2:09 am on June 8, 2022. I am so very tired and amid such big transition in life and ministry and have so many issues I face in a time and world filled with trouble with personal struggles galore and could so very much use great sleep but this message just poured powerfully from my heart. And I believe it is for someone, or for some people, and must be shared even this very hour. May the Lord in His loving sovereignty get it to those who perhaps need it. May He use it mightily in people’s lives, and may He now and always get all the glory for all that is good in my life and on this earth, Hallelujah, AMEN!
p.s. Normally I edit what I have written, even just minorly if need be. This time, I feel strongly compelled to simply share with you this message exactly as I wrote it.
I have been through countless seasons of grief in my life, and one thing stands out above all else when I consider so many of those seasons. For years when I grieved, I believed with all my exceedingly aching, broken, grieving heart that I would not make it through to the other side. I was convinced I would always be grieving, that my sorrow would never end, that the sadness would swallow me up, that joy was impossible, that hurt and heartache would take me out at worst or always be a black cloud hanging heavily over me at best, and that sunshine, a smile, and hope would always be far out of reach. My emotions reigned as king, in my grief I bowed down to them and lived by them, and even when I grieved as a believer in God I despairingly, dejectedly, and downheartedly assumed gruesome grief would always sit boldly like a despot on the throne of my heart and life.
Times have changed. God has changed me. He sits upon the throne of my life now where He alone belongs. And though grief still pierces my heart and times and still may feel unending when it comes, and though I still may feel like I’ll never see the other side of it, the Lord has taught me a powerfully awesome lesson.
When we place our hearts in His loving hands, when we pour out our emotions to Him, when we bow down before Jesus Christ as Lord and refuse to bow down to the grief, when we cry out to God in prayer for comfort and healing, when we commune with Him as Lord and friend, as God and King, as healer and comforter, as loving-kind master of our lives, when we refuse to give in to grief and instead surrender all to the Lord, when we devote ourselves utterly to the Lord and His ways, when we seek and fulfill the purpose He has for our lives, I believe the Lord will bring us through the grief to the other side.
Will we still have sorrow at times? It’s possible. Will we still weep when the searing pain of grief comes hard at us? We may. Will we still feel overwhelmed by sadness? It may happen. But when we yield ourselves utterly to God, and commit ourselves entirely to loving, serving, praising, worshiping, obeying, and glorifying the Lord forever and to fulfilling the individual life’s purpose He gives us, this in spite of the sadness that may come in little waves or even big ones, I believe the Lord will love, comfort, and heal us and lovingly, mercifully, graciously carry us to the other side of the grief and help us to press on with the lives He has blessedly given us.
Please friend, you who grieve, please place your heart and life in the blessed beautiful hands of God almighty, trust Him with your grieving heart, pour out your heart to Him as often as need be, be totally devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ, spend time in God’s presence daily, read the Bible day by day, and trust God to bring you through your seasons of grief and to equip and enable and strengthen you to fulfill His purpose for your life.
Do not let the grief reign. Yield yourself to the forever awesomely wonderfully marvelously forever reign of Jesus the Christ, AMEN!
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NKJV
“Trust in Him at all times, you people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us…” Psalms 62:8 NKJV