Good Grief - Part 4 Series

Good Grief -- Part 4

On the lighter side of life: Funny pictures from aha.com

Testimony: Trevor Jorgenson

Thesis: The Body of Christ needs to learn how to administer “Good Grief” in loss, in crisis and in trauma situations of life.

Summary of the series – What have we learned?

Good Grief pt 3:

In spite of dealing with death and tragedies we need to still believe! We need to understand that death is no the end but the beginning of a “Great Story!”

Good Grief pt 2:

Grief has purpose it helps us to heal and it is used to make us interdependent on God and others.

Grief is the journey to healing and we need to have appropriate responses to it.

Grief also has certain recovery steps that we need to understand and progress through.

H.G Stafford who lost his daughters in a shipwreck tells us that even in tragedy it can be well with our soul!

Good Grief pt 1;

We learned that Grief is God’s design for helping a person to recover from loss. It is a therapeutic response and it is “Good Grief” it is not evil or bad. God himself grieved according to the Word. We all will grieve at some point in our lives and we also need to be willing to be the hands of Jesus in fallen world to help others progress through the journey of grief.

Opening video Illustration: Clip from Illustrate Volume 1 Blue Fish TV - Pam

Introduction:

We need to remember that grief is God’s therapeutic process.

Grief will always accompany loss, crisis, and trauma. The heart wrenching questions many of us will ask after experiencing these tragedies is, “How will I ever recover?” “How can I go on?” “I cannot press on because the pain is so crippling!” “Why me God?” and even “Where are you God?”

C.S. Lewis wrote in his book A Grief Observed:

Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, if you turn to Him then to him then with praise, you will be welcomed with open arms. But to go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away.

C.S. Lewis is very honest in his book Grief Observed and he captures the pain and the loneliness of that suffering in the above statement. But he does in the book help us understand that these moments will arise in the grief journey but the key is we must press through them to healing and recovery.

Scripture Texts: These Bible texts do not point to “Is God to blame for my tragedy?” but they teach us that the important question is, “How will I respond to this crisis, trauma, or loss?”

James 1:2-5:

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

1 Peter 1:6, 7:

6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

1 Peter 4:12, 13:

12Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

These verses do not answer the question about why something happens but they do answer the question about how we should respond to the crisis? The how I will respond? Really becomes the most important question that needs to be answered in the journey of grief. This answer determines how we will recover.

T.S. - So to help us respond appropriately to the grief let’s answer another common question: Where is God when it hurts?

I. He is closer than you think!

a. God is always closer than we think and we need to learn see Him daily.

i. John Ortberg stated, “The central promise in the Bible is not ‘I will forgive you.’ The most frequent promise is ‘I will be with you.’” (God Is Closer Than You Think, page 15).