Showing posts with label Bible Verses of Comfort. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bible Verses of Comfort. Show all posts

Friday, September 17, 2010

Friday's Faith - The Now...and the Not Yet




Stairs to Heaven Pictures, Images and Photos




Friday's Faith


The Now...and the Not Yet





By faith, even amidst the worst grief known to mankindthat of child-loss grief, we do believe some portions of healing are available~though not complete healing this side of Heaven.



We believe the key is to keep the grief flowing, allowing God to hold us in His arms to love, to comfort, to reassure, to remind us of His paradigm shift


The Now... and the Not Yet of Eternity.




We have many blessings here but not all the blessings God has in store for us. We know Jesus now, but we don't know Him as we will someday know Himfully. There is still sin and evil in this world. The world is fallen fallen from its ideal in creation, but one day it will be restored. Death, dying, sickness, grieving, crying are still here now. There will be a time it will be wiped away.



My baby girl was here~a little taste of Heaven on this earth. Now she is away. She died, and yet she lives. We are separated and yet she is with me in ways she couldn't be before.



She suffered here. She suffers no more. I held her, nurtured her, loved her here~ We had long talks; we went on trips together~ we communed soul to soul. We talked about God, her life, her strengths, her weaknesses, her love for others, her friends whom she loved (and at times worried about), her boyfriend whom she adored and to whom she was lavaliered for quite awhile, then broken up, then reunited until she died two days later.



There was so much wonderful about her. Sweet, incredibly sensitive to others around her, amazingly steadfast as a friend, not the typical "catty" female like many girls her age. She loved, truly loved her friends and would stand up for them and fight for them to the end. She was very funny, loving to crack us up as well as cracking up her friends. She was festive about life. She was extremely active, into just about every humanly-possible feat! She was captain of her climbing team. She was an award-winning state champion on the track team for every year of her high school years.



And now she is gone. But not forever. And she is not sad. She is at peace. She is at rest in her soul. She is with our Lord. She visits me in her own spiritual way with her tender, sweet, and fun personality intact~even improved as no sin nature interferes with her sweetness! She is whole. She is not suffering. She is safe.


And God wants me to climb into her new reality. He knows it's a process a process He meets me in and walks with me through.



The healing has been incredibly painstaking and seemingly slow. The grief is ever here but goes through many different phases.


A real key to my strength is her sweet smile showing up when I am absolutely crashing, and then the sadness disperses as quickly as the grief had hit me.



It seems the more I can "see" her alive, active, vital, the stronger I become. Horror, Excruciating Pain, Paroxysm Tears turn to peace, sweetness of "seeing" her, and yet still tears of missing her, and yes, times of angst but not always as agonizing or for nearly as long a period of time as before.







A client who knows me well said today she really doesn't "get" me writing in my blog so regularly. I don't think anyone could "get" that but other grieving mommies and daddies who knowour pain is ALWAYS there, and the pain ALWAYS has got to flow, and if my writing can HELP anyone else, that soothes my heart to think I might be able to lift a corner of someone else's pain for a few moments at a time. And so I write...




And I thank youso muchfor those of you who listen...





heart of grief Pictures, Images and Photos





*****


"... (God) crowned (Jesus) with glory and honor and put everything under His feet."

In putting everything under Him, God left nothing that is not subject to Him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to Him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering...

Since the children have flesh and blood, (Jesus) too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death that is, the devil

and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels He helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people.

~Hebrews 2:8-10,14-17 NIV



Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

~Revelation 21:3b-4 NIV



*****


Thank You, Lord, for Your amazing love and tender mercies to us. Thank You that our baby girl rests safely in Your arms, and for ever impressing that upon my grief-torn heart. Thank You for giving me a sense of her peace and happiness, and for Your faithfully walking me through this terrible grief, helping me to place my faith and trust in You, learning to trust Your mysterious ways.

Please bless all of our precious grieving readers who come to this blog~there are so many hearts full of pain over the loss of their beloved child. Please give them Your gracious and loving comfort, and continue to bring them Your healing and Your reassurances each and every day. Help them to have Your peace that passes understanding - even, and especially, in this, their terrible grief.

For it's in our Savior's name who lovingly gave His own life for us and for our children that I pray, Amen.











Pictures thanks to photobucket.com

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Tuesday's Trust - Trapped in the Grips of Grief...







Tuesday's Trust



Feeling Trapped in the Grips of Grief,

With No Strength to Save Myself...




In praying on my knees last night, I thought

of the desperation of my future

as in the grips of grief my life is caught

and I hold still awaiting my heart's suture...



And then I thought of my child's helplessness

caught in the trap of Satan's wrathfulness...



No one could deliver but her Savior.

There was nothing she could humanly do.

The odds were stacked...not in her favor;

Her only hope was in her Lord's rescue.



So, too, I see no obvious path ahead,

my life over, once my child was dead...



I feel as trapped as she did on that ground,

no way to move, no way to lift myself

out of the miry muck in which I'm found,

stuck with no earthly way to save myself.



And then, just like my child was shown The Way,

I know I'm lost lest Jesus shows The Way.



No map, no vision, nor given life's plan...

Both depend completely on th' Son of Man...




*****




Rest for the Weary


THE PARABLE COLLECTION

Time out from the burdens of life.


I am writing this in March of 2009 while the world is in a serious economic upheaval. Fortunes have been lost, retirement incomes are gone, and the basic necessities have become a struggle for many.

It is at times like these that I recall the simplicity of childhood and the safety of my mom and dad’s arms.

In truth, we assign too much importance to issues that, in the end, will be of no consequence. Have you ever heard of a man on his deathbed who asked to see his stock portfolio one more time? Could the time we spend worrying be better spent in quiet, soothing fellowship with the One who created it all and promises more?

Jesus said that we are not to worry, but to “seek His Kingdom first” and His Father would generously take care of our needs. And, He invited “all who are burdened and weary” to come and find sweet rest in Him.

Maybe we should give it a try.


Matthew 11:28

~by Michael Belk, The Journeys Project



"Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
~Matthew 11:28




*****



Thomas said to Him, "Lord we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"


Jesus answered,

"I am The Way and The Truth and The Life.
"No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really knew Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him."

~John 14:5-7 (capitalizations/highlights mine)




For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.


Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."


I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.


~I Corinthians 1:25-31, 2:3-5




The body...is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.


~I Corinthians 15:43



"My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness."


~2 Corinthians 12:8



He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you.


For to be sure, He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by God's power.


Likewise, we are weak in Him, yet by God's power we will live with Him to serve you.


~2 Corinithians 13:3b-4














Picture: http://www.thejourneysproject.com/image-detail.aspx?id=306

Thank you to Carla Povich, for sharing The Journeys Project with me through her blog http://onewaychrist.blogspot.com/


The Holy Bible, New International Version



Saturday, February 6, 2010

Friday's Faith - Falling Apart to Face...the Unknown



















Friday's Faith



Falling Apart to Face...the Unknown









All changed; changed utterly.

A terrible beauty is born.


~Yeats









Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible.


~Corrie ten Boom




























Falling Apart to Face...the Unknown







All changed; changed utterly.

A terrible beauty is born.


~Yeats







Mystery ahead; fear of the unknown.

Nothing is the same; Death's duty is done:

All changed in my world since my baby's gone.

From all appearance, Death and Satan's won...







Your death ended the only life I've known...


Grief


splits


me


apart


to


face...


the


unknown.







My life's not over, in ways, just begun

It's hard t' hear God's voice above Mommy's moan.

Created from naught...God's work's often done.

Though dysfunctional, I'm not left alone:







God in His Heaven sheds light through His Son...

I'm held together...by the 3-in-One.











******







(Jesus) is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.


~Colossians 1:17 NIV






“He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!] So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say,


The Lord is my Helper; I will not be seized with alarm [I will not fear or dread or be terrified].”


~Hebrews 13:5-6 AMP












Holy Bible - Versions: NIV = New International Version; AMP = Amplified
Pictures thanks to Photobucket.com and ClipArtOf.com
Poem - Falling Apart To Face...the Unknown - Angie Bennett Prince - 1/31/10




Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Tuesday's Trust - Unseen Amidst Death’s War Waged Against Us?



Tuesday's Trust


Unseen Amidst Death’s War Waged Against Us?



I'm finding that loss-of-child grieving,

in terms of isolation, is like being

shunned aside into th' lepers colony;

contagion-fear renders (a) motley posse.



It seems civilians outside of Death's war

don't have the tempered-heart it takes to fight

th' Evil One daily raging at our door

seeking to take advantage of Death's plight.



The child we lovingly nurtured daily,

he's successfully ravaged from our side.

Us, he e'er ravages with his railing,

renders weak t' weeping as he sets his stride.



Safely out of sight of battles raging

in our heart and soul, and spirit and mind,

once-loving fam'ly, blinded, now waging

we're surely done with this war-of-th'-worst-kind!



Th' surreptitious Enemy takes delight...

th' fam'ly who once nurtured can't see our plight;

we e'er know he has us in his cross-hairs,

but forget (at) ALL our loving bonds, he tears.



Perhaps he forgets Prince-of-Peace stands near,

With loving arms He holds, douses each fear,

Nurtures the heart that weeps each loving tear,

Gently binds each wound Satan seeks to sear,

Douses the spouting Fowler's raging fire,

Comes alongside each weeping warrior

By comfort, peace, and resurrection pow'r,

Transforms each into th' Thwarter's conqueror!



Our Savior dies t' topple the Spoiler's tow'r,

Destroys Death, hurling it into the fire,

And burns th' Fowler in Hell's eternal pyre.



All hail Christ amidst Heav'n's Holy Bonfire!





And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. ~Revelation 20:10

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. ~Revelation 20:14










Poem - Unseen Amidst Death's War Waged Against Us? - Angie Bennett Prince - 1/12/2010