How to Handle Heartache and Sorrow...

 

To My Daughters…

We all will face sorrows here on this earth...the difference is we either face them with Him or without Him. As a believer God works all things together for your good.  As a believer you know that He uses our trials to make us more like Him.  With that said the following verse might seem like a strange verse to begin a devotional on handling sorrow but read on...

"Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ"...Galatians 6:2

This one reminds me of Proverbs 31 where it tells me that the law of kindness should be on my tongue or earlier in Galatians where it tells me that nothing avails except faith working through love or in Romans 12:10 where it tells me to be kindly affectionate to others, in honor giving preference to them or where it tells me to put on love which is the bond of perfection in Colossians 3...in other words where it says to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh.  Bearing one another's burdens is so beautiful to think on...the only way we can actually do it is in living a life surrendered to the Spirit of God.

The more I live this life the more I see that the only solution is to fix our eyes on Christ and pour our lives out for others...just as He did.  Anything I am not sure how to handle in this life...all I need do is look to Him who lived the perfect life and yet was tempted in every way to see what to do.  What an example He gave us!! Jesus had no other agenda but His Father's in heaven.

As you know there is much ongoing heartache and sorrow in my own life that I am powerless to remedy.  The underlying song and background melody of my heart is joyful gratitude for all my God has done, but often my immediate presenting emotion is grief.  The only answer is Christ.  How did He handle sorrow? He was a Man of Sorrow and acquainted with grief.  He bore my grief and sorrow on the cross. He poured out His life for me and for you. He was despised and rejected...and yet He was not overwhelmed in His sorrow as I often become.  In fact, in His greatest sorrow He poured Himself out for us in the greatest display of love mankind has ever seen! He suffered for us and died so that each one of us would have the opportunity to live forever with Him! So what is the difference between how I handle sorrow and how Jesus handled sorrow...I think it is pretty obvious...even in His sorrow Jesus' concern was for others. On the cross burdened with the sin and grief of all the world, His focus was for the thief beside Him, for His mom's well being, and for forgiving those who were crucifying Him. Seeing His example and KNOWING His love for me how can I wallow in my own sorrow.  In fact, He tells me to cast my burdens on Him because He cares for me...His word tells me that He has borne my sorrow and grief and that He is my strong tower and refuge.

Love Mom

28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” --Matthew 11:28-30

Lord, give me Your strength even today to live for You despite my circumstances.  Help me to look to You and as I look to you change me and conform me into the image of Your Son.

18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.--2nd Corinthians 3:18