Blessed Mourning

Blessed and enviably happy [with a happiness produced by the experience of God’s favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!   Matthew 5:4 Amplified 

Enviably happy. Pleasingly happy. Happy and mournful. Do those go together? Jesus thought so. A thought that Matthew Henry conveyed in his commentary is that those mourning were righteously mourning. Graciously mourning for the lost, compassionately mourning for the sins of others, or repentantly mourning for our own sins; it is a godly sorrow. To be blessed during sorrow is a gracious gift from God. It is comforting—to know God cares—to know that others care. The ultimate comfort will be the promises that God has given us in Isaiah and Revelation concerning the end of the age…and heaven. No tears and thus no mourning. That will be a blessed time. Eternity without tears.

-          He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the LORD has spoken. Isaiah 25:8.

-          And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." Revelation 21:3-4 

Sorrow is better than laughter, for when a face is sad a heart may be happy. Ecclesiastes 7:3

Let us rejoice and be glad for God cares for us. May our mourning be turned into joy—and our joy be evident even during our mourning. 

RSVP:  Jesus must have had times of mourning—besides what we have recorded at Lazarus’ death when He wept. His heart was probably broken over the loss of family and other friends—but probably more so over complete strangers who rejected Him—and thus rejected our Heavenly Father, too. How would you respond to seeing Jesus mourning over lost souls...over sin…over you?

Prayer ~ Jesus, it will be a joy in Heaven to have tears wiped away—no pain, no sorrow. What a wonderful plan and promise. It brings joy to my heart even now to know that You, our Heavenly Father, and the Holy Spirit care enough about me, my family and my friends to comfort us—to care about us eternally. And it is equally encouraging to know that You care about the lost and those who are mourning—just like You care for us and all those who You seek. And we thought that we were seeking You—but all along You were seeking us. Thank you for not giving up on us. Thank you for blessing us while we were mourning.

 

Please comfort our family and friends as they deal with life and death and other mournful situations. Draw them close to You--and give them Your deep abiding peace.

© 2014 by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.

All scripture quoted from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) unless otherwise noted.