Blessed are those who mourn...

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4. 

Particularly compelling to my family at the moment. To mourn means that you have loved. You are blessed to have had that person in your life. Because you loved them, you shall find comfort, if you silence yourself before God, and accept His peace. God does not desire us to suffer, nor does He put suffering in our path to drive us to Him. He offers the free gift of His grace and peace, because sin created suffering in the world.

Ps 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Ps 56:8 You have kept count of my tossings, put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?

Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

2Cor 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.

From times of old, the Lord gave us assurance of blessing. This is how Aaron was to bless the Israelites (comfort them):
Num 6:24-27 The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.

So, today, I am putting the name of the Lord on the family, so that He will bless them, and give them peace.

I am not theologian enough to cite all the examples of comfort and sustenance in the Bible.  I can only offer my opinion from reading it, that the entire book has only one purpose, and that is to comfort us, believers, in a world that is so counter to the best nature God calls us to.  I think the Bible gives us the overall path to triumph over sorrow, loss, anger, grief, wrath, vengeance, emptiness, fear.

I think that we can find comfort in the Father, we can know the Father, and we can come to the Father, only if we understand that the world is not ours, but His.  In it, we are not to seek our own answer, or our own purpose.  We are to live the answer and purpose appointed to us by the Lord.  That is a hard, hard lesson to absorb and accept.  Because, as Jesus promised, we will suffer and we will be persecuted.  Life is a hard business, with many sharp corners and razor edges.

God knows that we will be bruised and cut.  In response to that, we can choose to sin further, to assume command of our own lives, captain our own ship, and sink in the abyss that is the chaos of the world.  Or we can choose to humble ourselves before God, to admit that we are not in control, and pray that He remain in control of us.  That we be given a spirit of peace that sustains us through the wonderful gifts of love, and through the great pain that deep love can bring when parted.

To provide the chief comfort possible, when faced with the death of a loved one, God sent us Jesus.  Jesus overcame death and promised that His children would likewise overcome death with Him.  It is not by our doing, by our science, by our power.  It is by God that we do this.  And the power that God gives us to accomplish this feat, is the gift of the Holy Spirit within us.

No one gets out of this life alive.  Even Jesus died.  He did not remain dead, and neither will we.  But, the inevitable outcome we face is death.  It troubles us and scares us.  That is why the Bible resounds with the message, DO NOT FEAR!  God has given us light on the dark path.  He has given us guidance, through the wilderness.  He has given us protection from harm.  He has given us healing from our injuries.

We only own one piece of this puzzle.  You are so important to God, that He desires you, freely and with your total commitment.  He does not want to bribe you into His presence.  He wants you to choose to partake of His grace and His bounty.  That is why they are free.  That is why it is not up to us, nor are we capable of doing it ourselves.  

It is on us to choose God.  We are to choose to let all this that surrounds us and encompasses us, all this that hurts us and wounds us, all this that delights us and tempts us, we are to let that go, and choose God.  If you call to Him, He will hear.  If you go to Him, He will receive you.  If you look for Him, He will be with you.  If you believe in Him, He will believe in you.

In times of sorrow, it is hardest to understand this powerful truth.  It just hurts.  It aches your soul so hard, it affects your body, your mind, your health.  Sorrow is a powerful, powerful thing, created in the sin of the world.  It is an obstacle, but it is not a destiny.  God is a destiny, God is the answer.  There is an alternative, and it is forever and it is horrific, so horrible as to defy description.  There is no sorrow in God, though there is comfort.  Tears in His bottle, because your sorrow is that important and real to Him, that He saves those tears, they are not wasted.  It is not a sign of a lack of faith to cry, or to feel sorrow and loss at a death.  It is a sign of weakness, and in our weakness, He is made perfect.

That is grace.  It is wonderful.  It is beyond our comprehension.  But, it is not beyond our reach.  God is never further than your fingertips away.  Even if you do not possess the strength to raise your arms, God is still within your reach.  He was never anywhere else.  The power that overcame the grave, that commanded the demons to leave, that commanded the lame to walk, the blind to see, the dead to wake, is there, within you.  If you partake of it, comfort will come

Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

GLYASDI