Unrelinquished Grief or Hope Dwelling? You Decide.

Are there times in life you just feel cheated? Have you felt like a sweet or thrilling (or both!) experience has been stolen right from under your nose? These things may be related to family, to work, or to any other significant life marker. Have you experienced that instead of moving from “glory to glory” as a believer, you are instead moving from loss to loss?

Such was the experience of Naomi in the book of Ruth. She moved to a foreign land and for 10 years made a home, only to lose not only all of her hard work, but, more importantly, her husband, and then even her two sons. Now, having nothing, she decides to return to her hometown. Upon her return, she is greeted by her people. However, she had suffered so much loss that she began telling her people to no longer call her Naomi, meaning pleasant, but to call her Mara, meaning bitter, because, “the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” (Ruth 1:20-21)

My soul has felt the same swelling toward bitterness, the companion of unrelinquished grief. It swells from the pain of loss, and therein the pain of “less.” Less than hoped for. Less than expected. Less than intended. From the beginning God’s intentions were for perfect relationships and communion. His intentions were for so much MORE than what any of creation is currently experiencing. The disparity between what God prepared and what has yet been received is continually of pain to even God Himself. But experience the power of that small word… yet. We are not currently experiencing all that God has prepared since the foundations of the earth. Is it possible that my experience of this grief mirrors the heart of God Himself as He witnesses His creation experiencing all of the various forms of less since our exit from the Garden itself?

John 16:33

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Psalm 84:2

My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God

1 Corinthians 13:10-12

but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And yet (don’t you just love that word?), while pain is present, we are never without hope. Instead of dwelling in the pain and moving toward Mara, I am challenged to dwell in Hope. There is universal loss at hand because there is universal less at hand. But we can take heart, God has overcome the world! Live in hope of the glorious day that is coming when all that God intended to be will be revitalized, restored, and fully revealed. Realize that the longing in your heart, the grief, the pain, is really a calling to wait with expectant hope. Our Deliverer is coming again. Fully receive the longing of your heart as a longing for God and all that He will rightly bring. Righteousness and justice will meet again. Believe and be filled with hope today. Be filled with more of Him.

Psalm 16:9

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest (dwell) in hope.

1 Peter 1:3, 8-9

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,… Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

PSALM 85:10

Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.

Realize that you can fully trust God, and His plans, His heart and intentions toward you because He fully knows you. He created you. As a result, He knows best what is best. There is coming a day when you will fully understand, but your calling for now is not to reason or understand, it is to DWELL IN HOPE. To more fully dwell in God Himself.

We must keep moving. As believers, grief should only be a place we visit, not a place we stay. If we linger too long, grief turns into bitterness, and bitterness, when it is fully rooted, becomes despair. At this point in life I feel like my frequent flyer miles from visiting the land of grief should be redeemable for some sort of reward. But, wait... as we righteously persevere we will receive the eternal reward.

Psalm 1:1-3

Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

Dr. Robert Stackpole compiled the following scriptures:

“Jesus taught us:

Blessed are you when men revile you, and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. ... Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. ... Not every one who says to me 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ... For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done (Mt 5:11, 6:19, 7:21, 16:27; cf. Mt 25: 31-46, Lk 12: 8-9)

And Paul wrote in his letters:

For He will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality he will give eternal life; but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. ... Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart. ... For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is if any avail, but faith working through love.... I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing (Rom 2:6-7; Gal 6:7-9, 5:6; II Tim 4:7-8).” (accessed here: http://www.thedivinemercy.org/news/If-We-Serve-God-For-a-Heavenly-Reward-Is-That-Selfish-3062)

Live in confident hope. Your reward is being processed and you will fully receive it in the fullness of time.

ROMANS 12:12-14

Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer. Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.