We continue with Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, also known as The Beatitudes. Today we are reading:
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4, NASB)
The mourning He speaks of here derives from the word “lament”. It is a deep personal grief caused either by sin, tragedy, social evils, or oppression.
Jesus is describing the person whose heart is broken by what breaks God’s heart.
This mourning Jesus speaks of is a pain that, if we allow it, will push us more deeply into our relationship with God.
“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.” (Romans 5:3-4, NLT)
There are lessons learned from such mourning:
- God doesn’t waste our pain. Our pain produces. Each step through a time of mourning produces fruit in our life until we are finally made complete.
- We learn to endure. The small things in life become easier to overcome or overlook. We gain strength to not only jump over the hurdles of life ourselves, but also encourage others to do so.
- Our hope is solidified. Just as Jesus overcame, He is our hope in the midst of our pain. His strength becomes ours.
But this mourning does even more in our lives – it enables us to come alongside others. When we are comforted by God, we are able to comfort others with the same comfort we have received.
“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4, NLT)
Isaiah 61:3 gives us another precious promise:
We will receive a crown of beauty instead of ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, and festive praise instead of despair.
We will be like great oaks,
standing strong,
planted for the Lord’s own glory.
My blogging friend Donna Bucher shares wisdom in this post “Find the Comfort You Need Now.” We often think of comfort as the removal of our pain. May we embrace God’s comfort assured of His Presence with us even when our situations may not be changing yet.
Come, sit a spell. Bring your coffee, your posts, and your thoughts. If you link up, kindly visit those who have drawn up a seat around you.
**This is an edited post which first appeared HERE.
Image by congerdesign from Pixabay
A timely post Joanne as the first anniversary of my Dad’s passing is tomorrow.
Thank you sweet friend.
Blessings, Jennifer
Such a good post. As hard as trials are, it’s comforting that God has a purpose in them and provides His grace and comfort through them. He walks through them with us.
Only He can turn our mourning into dancing and replace our sackcloth with clothing of gladness (Psalm 30:11). What a good father we have! Only God!
Your post today, Joanne, brought me back to a pivotal moment in my life – the loss of our first child during my second trimester. I remember the deep, deep pain my husband and I felt. As we mourned, I felt God’s gifts sprinkled into my grief – the deeper relationship that developed between my husband and I, the tender ways those around us embraced us, my faith grew and strengthened and the joy found when we ultimately became parents. You are so right – while it can be hard to see it in the moment, God does not waste our pain!
I appreciate your definition of mourning and God’s promise of comfort. I hadn’t thought of it as related to lamenting over social evils. I’ve certainly felt that in recent years.
Joanne,
Such good thoughts here about comfort when we mourn, it is a deep comfort to know Christ, who was well acquainted with grief, and a Man of Sorrows sits with us in our grief.
I also love the thought that as we mourn our sinful ways in repentance, we likewise find the comfort of His love, mercy and forgiveness.
So grateful to you for sharing my post, may others find it a blessing!
Marinating in our culture of pasted on smiles and the expectation that all our prayers will be answered immediately, we need this reminder that there’s a place for mourning in a faith centered around the Man of Sorrows who was acquainted with grief.