Facing Our Losses

Psalm 23

The Valley of the Shadow of Death

*We will walk through it

*There is no need to fear

(C.S Lewis wrote “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing.)

*The LORD is with us.

*He will comfort us.

*He restores our souls.

Our losses can be through a number of things, a number of the manifestations of death. Divorce can be like death. The word death in the Hebrew means both death's shadow and deep darkness.

Story of second Christmas after Mark died.

Psalm 68.6 God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

1. Face Them

*Don't deny them

*Don't let anger rule. 

*Don't replace them. 

You can't. 

God won't.

*Embrace them

Embrace the Cross- Fenelon

Mayor

2. Face Them With the LORD

*He is The Man of Sorrows.

He understands. No one understands like Jesus.

*He is with us.

His Promise.

*He is here to help.

In ways we cannot even imagine.

*He faced them.

Jesus knew what it was to have people leave Him through betrayal, death and loss of love.

3. Face Them With An Eternal Perspective.

This world and our lives here are temporary.

Heaven is forever.

I do not think we can comprehend just the eternal part alone.

There will be a new earth and a New Jerusalem.

4. Keep Your Eyes on Jesus.

Fixed upon Him.

to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something

As we look to him our grief is bearable because we know He is with us and He is the Resurrection and the Life. John 11, backyard, shortly after my brother, Mark died.

Jesus' words to Martha

John 11.23 Your brother will rise again. 

Those words to Martha there in Bethany, Israel became His words to me in Bay Shore, Long Island 16 years ago... because I had my eyes, teary as they were, fixed on Him!

5.Walk  With the LORD on the Blessed Hope Grief Journey   

Tragedy to Triumph

This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. John 9.4