Comfort of God

Our God is so good to us. Even when we struggle to feel Him there. Even when we’re so heart broken it causes physical pain to mutter a prayer, He is there holding us. As many of you know, I lost my grandma a few months ago. It shattered me. She was my best friend, a second mom, a sort of protection for my heart. With her gone, these devotionals must be pried out of me with the jaws of life. 

To me, when I write, I share the depths of my heart. I do so with enthusiasm because I long to see others grow in their faith. That is my God-given assignment. I can be vulnerable because Christ is my security. I share “my story” because it’s not really mine; it’s His. But I lost a level of security when my grandma passed. Therefore, for the time being, these devotionals won’t be coming out every week.

To help me heal, I read through a booklet by Derek Prince called “Hope beyond Grief”. At the end, He gave some practical steps to apply in times of grief. His first point was to “Trust God’s love and wisdom.” There is information that God gives us and information that he keeps hidden from us (Deut 29:29). God has told us why death happens; when Adam and Eve ate the fruit, there was a curse of death put on this earth. Why do certain people die at certain times of certain things? That I don’t know. But as Job says in Job 1:21, “… The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” No matter the pain, I will continue to worship the Lord.

His next point was to “Yield your loved one to God.” I selfishly wanted my grandma back. It’s hard for me to cope without her here. But Prince suggests a simple prayer of submission. “I won’t ask for her back. She was Yours before she was mine.” I added, “But there are a lot of holes in my heart left. I need you to come and fill them because I can’t function with them here.” Grief is like a living rope I’m struggling with. I desperately gripped it in a vain attempt to stay connected with my grandma, but in doing so, it coiled around me like a boa constrictor. By placing her and my grief in God’s hands, He is able to untangle me. 

One other point Derek Prince shares is to “Express your emotions.” Emotions are gifts from God when we put them in their right place and express them properly. I know all my tears are not in vain. Through them, God is comforting me, healing me, and teaching me to comfort others. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 affirms this, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” There is hope.

God is understanding of the aches of our hearts. He has given me ministry to care for my family, to homeschool my children, and to write. But Jesus understands our pain. Hebrews 2:17 says, “Therefore He [Jesus] had to be made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” Because He was made like us, He understands our pain and gives us time to heal. In those times, we are still called to the ministries He’s appointed to us, but not to the same extent. We can breathe. We don’t have to be enough. Christ is enough for us in this moment.

“Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

PRINCE, DEREK. Hope beyond Grief. DPM-UK, 2018.

Even though I’m not writing these devotionals as frequently, I am still writing them and jumping more into writing fiction stories. Because I don’t have a set posting schedule right now, it’s a great idea to drop your email below so you get my devotionals directly to your inbox!