JoNancy Sundberg - Hope in Times of Grief

Affliction is a universal problem. Rich, poor, educated, uneducated, cultured, barbaric, city dwellers, farmers, bank presidents, street sweepers, musicians, coal miners, old, young, Eastern, Westernall people of every tribe, nation and language group have experienced and are experiencing and will experience some form of suffering, troubles, disappointments, or tragedy, and will continue to do so in their daily lives.

Edith Schaeffer, Affliction

For the Lord does not abandon anyone forever. Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion according to the greatness of his unfailing love. For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow.

Lamentations 3:3133, NLT

Grief is the hearts response to any deep loss the word grief is all-inclusive. There are many deaths in life, and we grieve for all of them. We mourn prolonged loss of employment, death of a pet, infertility, death of our dreams, divorce, moving, losses caused by aging and disease. We grieve all endings on the way to new beginnings. And all the griefs change us.

Paula DArcy, When Your Friend Is Grieving

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father (who has loved us and given us unending encouragement and unfailing hope by his grace) inspire you with courage and confidence in every good thing you say or do.

2 Thessalonians 2:1617, PHILLIPS

The most determinative thing about the way we live our lives and most certainly the way we walk through the valleys is what we, in the deepest part of our beings, believe God is like.

Verdell Davis, Riches Stored in Secret Places

Job cried out to God to answer his questions. Ultimately the only answer God gave to Job was a revelation of Himself. Job, I am your answer. Job was not asked to trust a plan but a Person, a personal God who is sovereign, wise, and good. It was as if God said to Job, Learn who I am. When you know me, you know enough to handle anything.

R. C. Sproul, Surprised by Suffering

God is still God. God always has been and always will be. And, though all we may be able to do right now is cling to Who God is and What God is, thats enough. We may not be able to praise. We may not be able to sing. We may not even be able to pray, but we can hang on to the conviction that God is God. With David we can look ahead and say, I will yet praise God.

Roger Palm, Bible Readings on Hope

All your waves and billows have gone over me, and floods of sorrow pour upon me like a thundering cataract. Yet day by day the Lord also pours out his steadfast love upon me, and through the night I sing his songs and pray to God who gives me life. O God my Rock, I cry, why have you forsaken me? But O my soul, dont be discouraged. Dont be upset. Expect God to act! For I know that I shall again have plenty of reason to praise him for all that he will do. He is my help! He is my God!

Psalm 42:79, 11, TLB

I thought I could describe a state; make a map of sorrow. Sorrow, however, turns out to be not a state but a process. There is something new to be chronicled every day. Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape. Not every bend does. Sometimes the surprise is the opposite one; you are presented with exactly the same sort of country you thought you had left behind miles ago.

C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail:
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,

Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.

Robert Grant, O Worship the King

When we have experienced the shock of a major loss, sometimes our minds go into neutral. The mind is paralyzed and overloaded.

Raymond R. Mitsch and Lynn Brookside,Grieving the Loss of Someone You Love

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.

John 16:33,NLT

I felt like I was having a nightmare. I wanted to wake up. I prayed to wake up. A strong sense of disbelief, of unreality, swept over me.

Mary White, Harsh Grief, Gentle Hope

If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales!

It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas.

Job 6:23, NIV

Come, ye disconsolate, wherever ye languish

Come to the mercy-seat, fervently kneel;
Here bring your wounded hearts,
Here tell your anguish;
Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.

Sir Thomas Moore, Come Ye Disconsolate

The mountains may disappear,

and the hills may come to an end,
but my love will never disappear;

my promise of peace will not come to an end.

Isaiah 54:10, NCV

Let not your heart be troubled. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.

John 14:1; Colossians 3:15, KJV

If we open the shutters in the morning, the light will pour in. We do not need to beseech it to pour in. It will pour in if we will let it. It is so with the peace of God. It will rule in our hearts if only we will let it in.

Amy Carmichael, Edges of His Ways

The gentle past, the horror-filled futureneither is a good place for the mind to dwell. Knowing that God is in control today is the underlying peace that passes understanding.

Jen Krumroy, Grief Is Not Forever

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you,

whose thoughts are fixed on you!

Isaiah 26:3, NLT

Our Lord did not say, These things I have spoken unto you, that in your circumstances ye might have peace; or, these things I have spoken unto you that in the love of others ye might have peace; but He did say, These thingsthings of wonder, joy, sorrow, preparationI have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. (John 15:20) Is there any surprise of grief that our dear Lord has not foreseen? These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace.

Amy Carmichael, Edges of His Ways

When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot,
Thou has taught me to say,