Blessed are those that mourn
by Liz Griffin
If the word ‘blessed’ means ‘God will be with you’ it makes more sense in Matthew 5:4 where Jesus says ‘Happy are those that mourn; God will comfort them!’ Emotionally it’s impossible for me to be happy when I’m mourning, (when I have grief). There have been a few times in my life when I’ve had grief and mourned the loss of someone precious to me who’s died or who’s been taken away from my life in some way. But I have to say that before I had a relationship with God through Jesus Christ the comfort of God was not really available to me. That was when I turned to a substitute source for comfort.
But I’m not convinced that Jesus means the kind of mourning that we do when someone we love dies. Yes I do believe that He brings comfort and healing to that form of grief, but if we are to have the values of the Kingdom then I think we must mourn over the things that God mourns over. Maybe they aren’t the kind of things that we spend our time thinking about. Perhaps we are more concerned with our own little world than the suffering of others.
God must search for those with a heart to grieve about innocent children and babies who are abused or treated cruelly, or for adults who are helpless and trapped in bad situations. When we care with His heart of compassion we will cry out in prayer and we will take whatever action is within our power to bring change.
I don’t think, however, that when our hearts are softened and we are compassionate that we must become overburdened and depressed. That would be a triumph for the enemy of our souls to see us in such a state. There are people who never feel joy and never allow themselves to have fun. They struggle under a load of condemnation and false guilt. I know that Jesus wants us to have an ‘abundant life’.
If we care enough with some of God’s own heart for others we will ourselves receive comfort from God. That is the promise Jesus refers to here. There will be enough love and comfort for the suffering we are trying to help and some to spare for our own troubles. God will be with us.
Prayer: Dear Lord, help me to be sensitive to the suffering of others and to notice the things that are so easily overlooked in my busyness and self centeredness. Help me to show love and do whatever I can, relying on You for what I can’t do. I want to see things from Your point of view. Give me Your eyes and Your ears. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Liz Griffin lived for 20 years as an expatriate in South Africa, Bahrain and Japan, as her husband Paul worked for an international oil company. Paul and Liz became involved with Ellel Ministries in 1991 as part of the ministry team and joined the full-time team at Ellel Grange in 1995. Paul and Liz teach and minister to those seeking healing in their lives and together have written two books, 'Anger - How Do You Handle It' and 'Hope and Healing For The Abused'.
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