Blessed Are Those Who Mourn, For They Shall Be Comforted
Recently, there have been things in my life that have greatly grieved my spirit. Disappointments and hope deferred—watching those I love live a life full of disobedience, pride, and pain. While sitting with the Lord, this verse welled up deep in my spirit:
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Comfort from the Lord is a blessing. It’s worth the pain of mourning and weeping to be comforted by the Lord. The Psalms write of being comforted by God, time and time again. What beauty and pleasure it is to be loved by the Lord in the midst of our suffering.
The fruit of grief
The glory of suffering is that it reveals what is already deep in our hearts, for better or for worse.
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
What is your suffering producing?
The truth is, we are always growing something. Whether it is the fruit of the Spirit (peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, and the like) or the fruit of disobedience (idleness, lust, carelessness, anxiety, anger)—we always reap what we sow. If in your grief, God isn’t turning your suffering to good, refining your pain to gold, or pressing your tears into oil—then you need to reevaluate where your source is. God always turns things for good for His children (Genesis 50:20). Let your suffering be fruitful. Don’t succumb to fear and anxiety and unbelief.
I have seen people in the depths of grief over family and children have the purest joy and strength—and that’s all from the Lord.
Endurance in the garden
When I think of relational aches and loss, I often think of the Garden of Gadsemede. The pain when Jesus asks of his friends, “Could you not keep watch one hour?” The pangs of disappointment, knowing that the people you love, don’t love you with the same depth and in the same way. The misunderstanding Jesus endured by all those He loved.
I have such a hard time conceptualizing how the God of the Universe clothed Himself in flesh and came to us as a human to save us—but it’s true all the same. And in His mortal body, Jesus felt what I feel today (Hebrews 4:15). The deepest pains: emotional, spiritual, physical. Knowing He would endure them and enduring them all the same.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Endurance. It comes up a lot in the Bible in relation to suffering (hypomenō in the Greek). To endure means to remain, to be steadfast, to stay, to not run away, to persevere, to be brave and calm in affliction.
“As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
There is another blessing for those who “remain steadfast under trial” or endure suffering. God promises the crown of life for those who love Him and remain with Him, even in suffering.
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”
How to receive God’s comfort
A peace that surpasses all understanding can only come from the Lord (Philippians 4:7). And it’s His promise to you if you’ll call on Him in your darkest places of confusion, doubt, and pain. Don’t run away from Him in your season of pain or grief. Run to the Father with open arms; He’s there waiting for you.
e.
ELISE LAKEY
Elise is a writer, artist, and photographer based out of Nashville, TN. She’s the founder of Garden Theology and seeks to help all gardeners-in-training come to their full purpose in God. When she’s not writing, you can find her playing in the dirt, snuggling her cats, or weaving tapestries.
