HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED GOD'S COMFORT IN TIMES OF SORROW?

Today's promise: God will live among us with great joy

Have you experienced God's comfort in times of sorrow?

You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy.

Psalm 30:11 NLT

Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return to Jerusalem, singing songs of everlasting joy. Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they will be overcome with joy and gladness.

Isaiah 51:11 NLT

Mourning to joy

Have you ever danced at a funeral? That would be unthinkable, absurd. Funerals are times of reflection, sorrow, and mourning. We expect funerals to bring sadness and tears, not joy and celebration.

We mourn for many reasons, and each painful loss tears our emotions and causes us to regret past actions and missed opportunities, to wonder what might have been. Certainly nothing hurts more than the death of a loved one — we miss our fiance or spouse or child or parent or friend, and we long to hear that familiar voice and feel the person's touch.

Through the Scriptures, however, we learn that, one day, God will turn mourning into gladness and sadness into joy. That is God's plan. Because we know him, our ultimate destiny is heaven, and we have the solid assurance that one day all sickness, death and sorrow will be banished — we will be perfect and complete. All of this earth, including our pain, is temporary, but our joy will last forever.

From A Cup of Living Water for a Hurting Soul (Tyndale House) pp110-11

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House