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“O God, my heart is
fixed (unmovable-
regardless of my
circumstances!); I
will sing and give
praise…” (Psalm
108:1).
My heart can get
fixed on my problems
so that I have no
song and no praise,
but how desolate I
would be if I looked
up
and all I could see
was the black storm
cloud and no hope.
No! I will fix my
heart above the
cloud, for there the
sun is shining
at all times. In my
heart I know this is
so. It is only when
Satan
directs my attention
(as I allow him) to
the cloud and away
from
the sunshine that I
know is just above
the cloud. Even when
I don’t
see the sunshine, it
is still there,
warming the earth –
and me.
“He maketh the storm
a calm, so that the
waves thereof are
still.” (Psalm
107.29). “He turneth
the wilderness into
a standing water,
and dry ground into
watersprings” (That
must have been quite
a shower in the
desert!) (Psalm
107:30).
One of the greatest
blessings the Lord
has provided for us
is our
free agency or the freedom to choose what we will do. He will not override
our decisions. He is
as close as we let
Him be. If we are
in a “wilderness,” it is because we will not let Him turn
on the “watersprings.”
I can remember when
death struck at the
homes of people I
knew, even my friends, but passed my family by. I would tell
the Lord how
thankful I was that
all was well with
“me and mine,”
as if that would stay the hand of death from my family! How could
it? The “way of
life” includes
death.
The “blessed hope”
the Christian has is
that we don’t cease
to
exist just because our bodies die—we’ve just begun to live!
We are more alive
than when our
spirits lived in
their
houses call
“bodies.”
“The righteous
perisheth, and no
man layeth it to
heart; and
merciful (kind good)
men are taken away,
not considering that
the righteous is
taken away from the
evil to come.”
(Isaiah 57.1).
Why do we let the
death of a loved one
disturb us so? When
death knocked at my
own family’s door, I
began to realize
that
I am not an
exception, nor is
anyone else. “It is
appointed unto
men once to die,” so
says the Word in
Hebrews 9:27. There
are no exceptions. I
can’t say that the
Lord singled me out
to
“take my loved ones
away from me.” That
attitude is the root
of our grief. We
feel the loss
keenly, so we are
putting ourselves
in the center of attention. Our grief and sorrow are largely made
up of self-sympathy—“Why did God do this to me? I miss
them so much!”
When we can
recognize that we
are considering
mostly ourselves
and our self-pity has overtaken us, we then are in a position to
overcome our grief. It is difficult sometimes for us to see that our
sorrow is, at least
in part,
self-sympathy.
Self-centeredness in
any form blocks the
comforting power of
the Holy Ghost. It
is only natural that
we feel grief; we
are
emotional beings;
but when we are
consumed by it, we
become
dysfunctional. If we
are blessed to have
loving Christian
friends
who support us
during trying times,
it is wonderful; but
sometimes
we find ourselves very much alone with the grief. Ah, but we aren’t alone!
Just because another
human isn’t
available to help us
shoulder our great sorrow, doesn’t mean we are left without
comfort. Jesus
promised to send
another “comforter”
in the
person of the Holy Ghost, and He did.
We always have
access to that
source of power and
comfort. And
we CAN make it! The
Bible speaks of one
who is closer than
even
a brother and would never leave us. Personal experience has
taught me that those
words are absolutely
true and reliable.
He
is always “there.”
Sometimes there are
“living deaths.”
Broken
relationships,
divorce,
estrangement from
someone who lived in
our hearts are
all forms of death
and can cause as
much grief as their
death,
maybe more. We might
consider that those
living who hurt us
could make it right,
but those who have
died can do nothing
more.
It is true that
living deaths can
cause us as much
grief as the
physical death of someone we loved. But rest assured that God
knows and cares, and
He will get you
through it. Where
grief is concerned,
the only way out is
through.
If you are suffering
from any kind of
sorrow or grief, let
pure
Love enfold you and
uphold you. There
are no real
shortcuts
to working our way through grief, but through it we will go and
come out more
understanding and
compassionate, with
greater
mercy toward others
who suffer. We can
truthfully say,
“I understand”
because we really
do. We’ve been there
and
we know God’s formula works. “Casting all your care upon Him,
for He cares for
you.” (1 Peter 5:7
NKJV). In his little
book, The
Gentle Art of a
Servant’s Heart,
Charles Swindoll
says, “Mercy
means the ability to get right inside the other person’s skin—a deliberate
effort of the mind
and of the will.”
When we have
received mercy, it expands our mercy-well; and we have more
to bestow on others.
If you are
suffering, cast your
cares on Jesus. If
you have come
through your season of sadness, be a comforter to those who are just going
through. God
comforts us, not
only to be
comforted, but to be
comforters as well.
Pass it on.
(Most of this was
written after my
young brother
(Kelsey Ray Adams)
and Dad (Kelsey G.
Adams) died six
weeks apart in
1979).
Delores Adams
Copyrighted. All
rights reserved.
Alice's Legacy
Remembering Alice
The Library
The "Handkerchief" has been
anointed and prayed over by
several believers who care about
you and want to help you realize
your full potential in Christ
Jesus Our Lord.
 
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