2023-06-23
Good Morning Dear Ones,
A good definition of peace is the absence of fear and/or turmoil. Sadly, it doesn’t include pain or grieving in this description. All of us have the latter two things at some time in our lives. Most kinds of pain can be either cured or dulled by medical intervention. On the other hand, grieving is an inner struggle to accept the loss of a loved one, which never completely goes away. One has to learn to live with it, and strong, obedient faith in our Lord Jesus really helps. Our Lord gives us perspective on a loss like that of one’s spouse. He tells us that our loved ones who are believers in Him and have lived lives demonstrating the gifts of the Holy Spirit [GA 5: 22-23] have souls that are glorified [COL 3: 3-4] i.e. taken up to heaven to be with the Lord. Eventually, because of Christ’s victory over death [1 COR 15: 54-58] the person left behind will realize that such a spouse has gained eternal life—a life with the Lord in heaven. However, it must be understood that the one left behind will go for a period (and God decides its length) without the companionship that he or she once had on earth. That is where programs like Griefshare’s 13-week course and other groups for grieving people can help. Not everyone is blessed enough to have had the kind of marriage that I did for 44 years, but everyone who goes through the death of a spouse must go forward to make a new life and find a new peace. Faith in the Lord in that new life really makes a difference. When the spouse goes to heaven, any suffering prior to his physical death stops and he/she is released from it.
There are other reasons for weeping, such as when Jesus wept with Mary in Bethany over her brother, Lazarus [JN 11: 35]. In that case Jesus knew what he was about to do [raise Lazarus from death], so his tears came due to His empathy for Mary and Martha’s reaction to what they thought was the loss of their beloved brother. The Lord, who is omniscient [PR 15: 3; PS 44: 21; HE 4: 12-13] never loses His inner peace, except at the times He saw His earthly mother’s tears of grieving while on the cross [JN 19: 26-27] and was temporarily separated from the Father during His atoning sacrifice [EPH 4: 9; HO 13: 14; ZECH 9: 11]. One can only imagine the Father’s joy when He raised Jesus from hell, as victory over death was won! PS 62: 8 brings us to a logical conclusion. “Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to Him for God is our Refuge.”
We get further perspective from 1 THESS 4: 13-15, “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.” Don’t allow the archaic term “asleep in death” confuse the issue. This refers to a person who has undergone physical death, and only his obedient faithfulness in the Lord, will keep him/her from experiencing the punishment of spiritual death. In the latter, one’s spirit dies and this person is on a one-way trip to hell’s destruction and being forgotten. It is our faith in Christ proclaimed and lived that gives a person eternal life, forgiveness, and justification [JN 3: 16; 1 JN 1: 9; RO 4: 3].
Our Lord Jesus had these six pictures of peace: aloneness; provision; lessons during the storms of life; patience during the wait for glorification [His resurrection]; compassion and empathy. We need to understand the difference between loneliness and aloneness. When one is lonely, we suffer the loss of companionship and often in emotional pain. When one seeks aloneness, as the Lord Jesus did when after feeding the five thousand and had healed many people, He wanted to be alone, as He often did, to pray [LK 5: 16; LK 6: 12]. He and us can seek aloneness to pray; it’s our choice. The Holy Spirit bids me to continue discussing this list next week.
PRAYER: O Lord, You are teaching us ways to live out our faith that keep us in a deep, personal connection with You. Jesus, Your Son, sets the example of how to live out the faith You have given us in Him. We see Him as a Person, able to demonstrate the same array of emotions we do. He shows us wisdom that is far greater than ours, so much so, that we must hold Him in reverence and awe. His omnipresence [presence with all believers and potential believers at once] is supernatural and to be respected and perceived [AC 17: 26-27]. Dearest Father, Your greatest desire is that as many of earths inhabitants will establish a dynamic and active personal relationship with Your Son, Jesus. That is a measure of how much love You have for Your human creation [RO 8: 38-39]. When we do that, we are given a way to know Your perspective on the challenges of our lives and to have inner peace. Thank You and praise to You for Christ’s valiant atoning sacrifice and for opening His wisdom to us [COL 1: 26-29; 2: 2-3]. We ask for Your continuing presence and intervention in our lives. We send with this prayerful petition our love, loyalty, willingness to obey You, and deep, abiding faith, in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: As mentioned above, the Holy Spirit wills me to continue writing about the list of pictures of peace. Aloneness, provision, lessons during the storms of life, patience during the wait for glorification, compassion, and empathy. In the meanwhile, we can look back on our own lives so far and see how close to Christ’s example our own faith and action is. PS 139: 23-24, is the kind of humble prayer that pleases God. “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” Yes, if we ask this of God and have forgotten some sin we committed, we are putting our sin in His hands. The risk of negative eternal consequences is present. Remember when David took the census against God’s will, [2 SAM 24: 10-17]? The Lord, through the prophet, Gad, told David he could choose one of three possible punishments. Two were human-crafted, and the other one was action on God’s part. David chose the latter, with the wisdom that he and his people would be in better stead in God’s hands. Doing this is the road to greater peace! Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn, JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2023; All Rights Reserved.
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