Greg Laurie Daily Devotion - Sept. 20, 2010

Monday, September 20, 2010

Good Grief

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." 
—Matthew 5:4

If you have ever watched a Peanuts special, then you have heard Charlie Brown's signature expression, "Good grief." But did you know there is such a thing we could call "good" grief?

Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4). Or, "Happy are the unhappy." The word "mourn" that Jesus used is the most severe of all nine Greek words used for grief in Scripture. It is reserved for mourning the dead. And this verse certainly applies in principle to all who mourn.

Are you mourning today? When you lose someone who is close to you, you don't get over it like people want you to—especially if that loved one was a child. You never plan for such a thing. So I mourn every single day. Yet Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." There is a blessedness, or happiness, in mourning.

Some good things can come out of mourning. One is that you gain a new perspective. You see things differently. Some of the things that were important to you before are not nearly as important to you now. And some of the things that were not as important to you before become very important to you now.

You get a different view of life and find yourself longing for heaven more. Before my son went to be with the Lord, I thought about heaven. But to me it was a lot more intangible than it is today. I think more specifically about heaven now because someone so close to me is there. So you long more for heaven. And you find yourself drawing close to God because, quite frankly, there is nowhere else to go.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." 

Copyright © 2010 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved. 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. 

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