This month we will be looking at grief. Many people do not find the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons to be times of happiness or thankfulness. They look around their tables and see empty chairs, and their hearts are heavy, or they may have just lost their job, or a friendship has gone wrong, and they don’t know what to do. However, we do have hope in times of grief, and we will be looking into that this month. Our Bible Journaling Scripture today says, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4 ESV)
So many of us have experienced the loss of a loved one, and that first Thanksgiving or Christmas is a difficult time for us to go through. Many of us have also gone through a time of anxiousness because of the loss of our job, and we don’t know how to make ends meet. Some of us have lost relationships with friends, and we are grieving the loss of that relationship. Grieving is a part of life and sometimes we feel as if we can’t go on, and that no one understands what we are going through, so we deal with our grief on our own, or we just stuff it down and don’t deal with it at all. But our verse today tells us that God knows exactly what we are feeling. God, the Father, experienced that same grief when His Son, Jesus, was Crucified on the Cross. His grief was so deep not just because Jesus took all our sin upon Himself and He could not look upon Jesus, but that grief was deep because He felt the same loss we feel when a loved one dies, or a relationship is broken.
Knowing that God understands gives me hope when I am in grief. It could be the loss of a loved one, the loss of a relationship due to a disagreement with someone close to us, the loss of employment, or other things. The Bible tells us, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18 NASB 1995) He’s right with us in our times of grief. I remember when my first husband died, I went through a long period of grieving. I felt like I was in a deep, dark, pit, with no light in sight. One day, I just cried out to God and told Him all that I was feeling. It was then that I felt His arms wrap around me, and it was just like He was saying, “ I know, I know, just let it all out.” I hadn’t cried a whole lot before that time, but then the dam broke and I cried like I hadn’t cried since when my Dad died a few years earlier.
Some people have difficulty in dealing with grief. Either they stuff it down inside themselves, try to put on a brave front, and go on, or they just refuse to deal with it. Those are the people I tend to be concerned about. God never intended for us to bear these burdens on our own. The Bible reminds us that Jesus is right there to help us. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 NIV) In the middle of our grief, Jesus wants to take our burdens, our griefs, and those things that trouble us, and give us rest. We don’t have to bear those things all on our own, He will carry them for us!
When He takes the things we are grieving, we can have hope. It’s the kind of hope that leaves us knowing we are not alone, things will get better, and we can say, “This too shall pass.” The Bible says that “He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.” (Psalm 147:3 CSB) We can rest, knowing God understands and will help us.
If you find yourself in a time of grief, give it to Jesus. He loves you and He wants to give you rest and HOPE!
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