How to Embrace Grief and Grow

“We need to grieve.”

Most of us think of grieving in relation to the death of a loved one—a process we must go through to “get on with our lives.” However, grieving is a "grace of God for more."

Responding to God's call for more requires leaving something behind: security, long-held beliefs, even people and places we grew to love. It always necessitates a dying to ourselves. This requires grieving.

Grieving is not something we readily embrace, because we associate it with negative events. However, let's begin to see grieving as a grace God has provided for all His children. Knowing our weaknesses, He has given us grief that we might more easily and productively walk through the necessary transformation {2 Corinthians 3:18}.

Consider these benefits of grieving:

1) It prepares us to let go while making the first step possible. Saying goodbye is a liberating and empowering experience. Even when we don’t know what we're leaving, offering up our “whatever” to God releases His grace for the journey.

2) It allows us to keep our face turned in the right direction. God designed us to face toward the direction our feet are taking us; so that we avoid tripping over obstacles and running into others. Those who keep looking back have a tough time finding God’s path.

3) It makes future grieving easier, as God calls us to let go of more. Transformation is a process. Dying to ourselves, that God might be our all-in-all, is not a one-time event (and this is God's mercy). As God proves Himself faithful as we let go, we then grow to trust Him for more. In other words, our faith grows as we transform.

Grieving is a relational activity. God uses it to build our relationship with Him, and each other. The beginning point for grieving should always be prayer, and that in a community. When we're ready to take the first step in our adventure toward more, let's ask God to reveal something that we need to leave behind. This will allow us to practice the grieving process, and He will meet us there.

Hope In God (Why we can hope in God)

The reference scripture for this lesson:

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, for the help of His presence. {Psalm 42:5} (NASB)

Why are you discouraged, my soul? Why are you so restless? Put your hope in God, because I will still praise Him. He is my savior and my God. {Psalm 42:5} (GW)

Why am I so sad? Why am I so troubled? I will put my hope in God, and once again I will praise Him, my savior, and my God.  {Psalm 42:5} (TEV) 

It can be really hard to hope in God at times! We live in an evil, uncertain and hard world. Who doesn’t face personal uncertainty? So, how do we not struggle with fear of the future? How can we find hope in God - the God of hope? Our enemy wants to rob us of hope, however, God assures us in His word that we have a bright future. God gives us incredible promises to give us hope for the future, both in this life and the life to come.

Here are several:

• We hope in God because He has good plans for us
• We hope in God because He will fulfill His purpose for us
• We hope in God because He will complete what He started
• We hope in God because He will establish our plans.
• We hope in God because He will lead us
• We hope in God because our path grows brighter each day
• We hope in God because we are His workmanship
• We hope in God because all things work together for good

Let's keep hoping in God!

1) We hope in God because He has good plans for us.
 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. {Jeremiah 29:11}
God has specific wonderful plans for each of His children. He has a plan for us and it is a plan for good. Plans for our good. Plans for our joy. Plans to give us a future and hope. And no one can thwart those plans. We don’t know how or when God will work out His plans for us, however, we know He will. And His timing will be perfect. We can hope in God because He has promised us that we will see His goodness in the future. We hope in God because, unlike our plans, His good plans can’t be stopped or thwarted. 

2) We hope in God because we will see His goodness.
I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!
{Psalm 27:13-14}

God promises believers that will see His goodness in this life. We certainly will experience His goodness in heaven, however, we'll see it in this life as well. We will see God answer prayers and meet needs. We will experience His joy. We will see Him work in our families. Don’t give up! Keep hoping and waiting for the Lord’s perfect timing. Be strong and take courage. Our hope won’t be disappointed. We do have hope for the future! We can hope in God because He has promised that we will see His goodness in the land of the living, and that’s a promise He will fulfill!

3) We hope in God because of His abundant goodness.
Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind! {Psalm 31:19}

God doesn’t have just a few sparse blessings, but abundant goodness stored up for us, and He waits for His perfect timing to shower it on us. We cannot even begin to imagine all the blessings God has in store for us. If we have taken refuge in God, then we can be absolutely sure that God will pour out His abundant goodness upon us. We might not see it at the moment, but it will indeed come. 
We hope in God because He has promised to pour out His abundant, rich blessings upon us. 

4) We hope in God because He will fulfill His purpose for us. 
The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. {Psalm 138:8}

Have you ever wondered what your purpose in life is? Sometimes, we wonder if we're missing God’s will for our lives. However, God promises that He has a purpose for our lives and He will fulfill it! This gives us great hope! He absolutely will fulfill His purpose for us.  

5) We hope in God because He will complete what He started.
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. {Philippians 1:6}

God finishes what He starts. When God saved us, He began an incredibly good work in us – to transform us into the likeness of Christ. Everything we go through, good and bad, is controlled by His sovereign hand to conform you to Christ. He won’t fail. There won’t be any “unfinished” believer in heaven. God works in our lives every day and at “the day of Jesus Christ” we will be like Him. We have every reason to hope in God. If God has started a good, powerful work in you, then he certainly will bring it to completion. 

6) We hope in God because He will establish our plans.
Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established. {Proverbs 16:3}

Maybe you don’t know where you’re going in life. But if you seek the Lord, you have a sure hope He will establish your plans as He has promised. Let’s be honest: there are many times when we can’t bring our own plans to pass. However, God isn’t like that. If we commit our work to the Lord, He will establish our plans. He will cause our plans to align with His plans, and then He will bring those plans to pass. We can hope in God because He is the one who will bring our plans to pass. 

7) We hope in God because He will lead us.
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. {Psalm 32:8}

God Himself, the One who controls all things, the God of infinite wisdom, will personally counsel us with His eye upon us. Wow, who could hope for more than that! Let's ask God to instruct us and teach us and show us how to live a life that pleases Him, and He will. He will lead us in the way we should go. He will instruct - teach, guide, and counsel us. Even though the way forward may seem unclear at the moment, God will be the one who leads us. We can hope in God because He is faithful and will lead us and instruct us. 

8) We hope in God because our path grows brighter each day.
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. {Proverbs 4:18}

Maybe the path is dark right now, however, if we keep seeking the Lord, He will make our path brighter and brighter. As we seek to follow Jesus He’ll light our path. If we believe in Jesus, our future is bright. Our path will shine brighter and brighter until the full day when He - Jesus returns. We can hope in God because He has promised a bright future for us. 

10) We hope in God because we are His workmanship.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. {Ephesians 2:10}

Whenever we're tempted to think we might miss God’s will for our lives, this verse reminds us He created good works for us to walk in before He created the universe. He desires that we walk in these good works even more than we do. He has prepared them already and He will make sure we don’t miss them.

Do you believe that God has prepared good works for you to walk in? He most certainly has, and he will guide you into those good works. You are his workmanship, and every day he is making you more and more like Jesus Christ. Nothing can stop him from completing that work. We can hope in God because we are His workmanship. 

11) We hope in God because all things work together for good.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. {Romans 8:28}

Every believer suffers various kinds of temptations, tests, and trials. Life’s not easy. However, God works even the sad, hard, and painful things together for the good of what He has purposed. Someday in heaven, we’ll see how our momentary light afflictions produced an eternal weight of glory far beyond comparison.

So don’t give up hope. Let's keep asking God to pour out His abundant goodness upon us. Keep asking Him to guide and instruct and show us the way we should go. Let's keep expecting to see His goodness. Keep hoping in the living God. Our hope for the future isn’t based upon us. It’s based on who God is and what He has promised!

All things are possible to God. We have a promise of restoration; He is as good as He is powerful; so hope in Him.

The God of Hope

“Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” (Romans 15:4)

Paul is speaking about the Old Testament here in this verse, but what he says applies today. The Bible was written for our learning. This is not the conclusion of everyone. However, this does not change the facts. The greatest of all learning is the learning we get from God’s Word.

God's Word instructs us in the most important matters of life. Any institute of learning that ignores the Bible will wallow in ignorance in the most important matters of life. In Romans 15:4, Paul speaks of three areas of learning which we gain from the Scriptures. They are patience, comfort, and hope. These are very important areas of learning indeed.

Patience

Patience is a virtue of great value and none of us have enough of it. However, we can learn it from the Scriptures. The more we get into the Scriptures in earnest study, the better we will learn about patience. The world is not teaching about patience (its advertisements emphasize getting everything right now), but the Word will teach us patience.

Comfort

We live - are living in a very discomforting world. It can get pretty rocky and bumpy at times, and often we hit these rough areas of life. However, the Scriptures - God's Word will give us the comfort we need for the rough places of life; scripture gives us - the believer the best comfort.

Hope

Another valuable thing we learn from Scripture is hope. Hope is confident expectation, anticipation, looking and longing for, desiring, relying upon and trusting. The world does not give us any hope. Rather, it gives us a lot of hopelessness. But the Bible gives a lot of hope. It will give us hope in the midst of the worst circumstances and trails. It will give us hope for the future. If you want hope in your life, go to God's Word. It gives the best hope.

Romans 15:13:

"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." 

Here it is "the God of hope." There is nothing hopeless about the Christian experience. 

"The God of hope" is both the One who gives us hope and the object our hope. 

Our joy is the joy of the Lord. (John 15:11; Galatians 5:22; 1 John 1:4) 

The peace is not "as the world giveth." (John 14:27)

It is Jesus' peace given by the Holy Spirit to those who hope in God.

(Galatians 5:22; Philippians 4:7)

The believer does not build on the experience of an hour or the happenings of a minute; our hope is in God, the One who sees the end from the beginning, planning and understanding it all. 

The result of joy and peace abounds "through the power of the Holy Spirit."

The description of God as the God of hope relates to hope mentioned in the preceding verses and to the promises of God recorded in the Scripture which give hope. Paul desired God to fill his readers with all joy and peace. (Romans 14:17)

1) We experience joy as we anticipate seeing our hopes fulfilled. 

2) Peace is the result of the assurance we have that God will fulfill our hopes. 
(Romans 5:1; Philippians 4:7)

3) Joy and peace are experienced as we trust in Him.
(Hebrews 11:1)

4) As a result of the believer’s joy and peace, there’s overflow of hope aided by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:19)

The achievement of all God's purposes for the spiritual welfare of His children comes from the power given by the Spirit of God. 

A strong fellowship - Church

Each one of us has a personal responsibility to help make our local fellowship of believers a strong body. It is the duty of every believer to bring all he or she is—the talents, gifts, love, knowledge, acceptance that come only from knowing God—to the local church. There are five qualities, five marks that spell out a strong fellowship:

• Mark 1: the strong bear the weaknesses of the weak.
• Mark 2: everyone studies the Scriptures - God's Word.
• Mark 3: everyone works for harmony.
• Mark 4: everyone accepts one another without discrimination.
• Mark 5: everyone is filled by the God of hope.

Our God - our Father is the "God of hope!!!"

He is:

·  the "Author" of our hope

·  the "Foundation" of our hope

·  the "Builder" of our hope

·  the "Finisher" of our hope