Blessed Are Those Who Mourn....

We have all, whether young or old, come to a time in our life where we must go through a period of mourning. As a child, it might be our loss of our first pet, destruction of our favorite toy or loss of our "Binky". As a adolescent, it might be the loss of our first sweetheart to another. As a adult, it most often occurs when one of our parents passes away and we are left with that deep and abiding pain of losing one so dear. Whatever the loss, the mourning is real!

But Jesus tells us in his second Beatitude that blessings come to those who mourn in the form of comfort, but not necessarily in the extraction of pain. God seeks to bless those who mourn over the human condition, who find pain from the despair or guilt left by sin or lament the ravages of mankind's depravity since the Fall.

But our God seeks to bless those who are hurting...those who weep from the pains and woes of life, yet know that in Christ Jesus, " God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."  (Revelation 21: 4)

It is in this context that God brings comfort to those who need His healing. They can be confident that he will "turn their mourning into dancing" (Psalm 30:11) and "put off their sackcloth and clothe them with gladness." (Psalm 31:12)  He says again in Psalms 126:5-6, "Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."

Our God is a God of comfort for the tired and weary soul...the soul that mourns over its plight in life and for the ways of a lost and dying world. We need to mourn for this world...to cry out for pity, forgiveness and for the light of God's love to erase the darkness where sin and evil hide, seeking whom they may destroy. We need to lament over the ways of this world and for the sin-sick heart of each of us...but we don't need to stay there.

We need to rise and take hold of the promise of comfort offered to us from the Throne of Mercy. We need to know that in the midst of our pain, God's promise of deliverance is assured. In the depths of our sin, His grace is sufficient and our redemption is at hand. In the inner recesses of our broken heart, His love will see us through.

Our Father promises that comfort from the pain of this world is ours...He promises that He is the same...Yesterday, Today and Forever! He promises that if we come to Him, weak and heavy laden, cumbered with our load of cares...He will give us rest and COMFORT...and we will be blessed! He offers Himself as our comfort...AND THAT'S ALL WE NEED!

Blessed in the Comfort...Lavished in His Love,

WPQ

Poem for the Day:

If life is filled with strife and stress,

No peace for the troubled heart;

Just listen for the Savior’s voice,

Then your fears will soon depart.

No matter the pain your feeling

No matter how great the loss;

Christ himself has paid the price

With His life upon the cross.