YOUR GRIEF…
and mine!

 

 

 

DEAR PEOPLE
I hope and pray you can all believe and feel the same way, for it is holy to love by feeling empathy as God does. It is a blessing to seek His heart, find His ways, and mirror His powerful love!
His love is unstoppable for those who return it to Him…

Selah.

 

NOTE:
But those who harden their hearts unto death will endure His unending wrath as Pharaoh did …

You have to study! God did not harden Pharaoh’s heart.
He allowed it to be hardened…
You sometimes need to go to the original languages of the Bible. Other times you have to go to the rule of first mentions. And then another good study habit: you need to find Scriptures other than the particular book you’re in (one of sixty-six books – making up one book – the Bible) to help you interpret.  Selah.

 

 

SORROW AND GRIEF are like all emotions — given to us by God. Anger, for example, is to be used for His glory. God’s anger of murder is holy! Amen and amen.

Selah.

Again: it is totally beautiful and holy to sorrow and grieve about the tragedies in this fallen world as He does.
And before I go on, the joy of the Lord is always the answer to find relief.
The reasons people suffer are many; but God has always given the righteous salvation.

Selah.

 

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

 

Romans 8:32
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

 

Revelation 21:6-8
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

 

Suffering, beloved (and crabbies!) is a curse Jesus died for. Yes, we have been warned of trials, tribulations, persecutions, and death. But:

 

Revelation 12:11
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

 

His sorrow must be our sorrow. His grief must be our grief.
The joy of the Lord is strength only to people who revere our true and living God.

Selah

As we stand firm trusting God, living for Him…
our empathy kicks in. I think of this profound example which I experienced as a twenty-year-old woman; a woman paying no attention to God, a woman trying to do everything my own way, pushing God back until later…
It is so wonderfully amazing in that God has told me things even when I was this woman; paying no attention to Him! While I was still oblivious to the desperate straits I, myself was in, He would still impress things on me.

This lesson is one of them…
I was at a small grocery store in downtown Saint Paul. I had finished work and was making some small purchase. Can’t remember what, it’s been so long ago. As I glanced to my right my heart became immensely burdened. An old man was fishing through his pockets for coins.
My heart went out with extreme compassion and love for this old man whom I knew didn’t have enough money for what he needed. I knew this. This is what God was telling me even at this time in my life. It hurt me so badly… You see, I had no money with me that I could have run over and given to him. I went away sad. He went away sadder…

To this day, some forty-six years later, I still think of this sad situation at times and that precious, precious old man! I’m glad I am thankful to my Father God that He bestowed on me deep loving compassion for an old man, a man I didn’t know, a man I never saw again…
The great sorrow I felt that day and my inability to give a gift of money has taught me much. To this day I still remember his great pain and mine.

Selah.

God gives us all the gift of love for people; we choose what to do with it!
It always, always comes down to the Two Greatest Commandments:

 

Matthew 22:35-40
One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

 

Love God, love yourself, love others and your life will be as Heaven on Earth…

Grieve as He grieves..
This is love!

 

 

SCRIPTURES REGARDING THIS JOY STORY:

 

Ephesians 4:29-31
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

 

2 Corinthians 7:10
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

 

1 Peter 1:3-9
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.