We spend our years with sighing; it is a valley of tears; but death is the funeral of all our sorrows.
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 70.
Too many Christians feel that grief is wrong, that we’re supposed to rejoice when a loved one goes to be with the Lord. While we can rejoice in their homegoing, we can also grieve our loss.
Grief expected, but it is different from the grief of the world. There is a difference between tears of hope and tears of hopelessness.
One Minute After You Die, Moody, 1997, p. 59. Get this book!
No words can express how much the world owes to sorrow. Most of the Psalms were born in the wilderness. Most of the Epistles were written in a prison. The greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers have all passed through fire. The greatest poets have “learned in suffering what they taught in song.” In bonds Bunyan lived the allegory that he afterwards wrote, and we may thank Bedford Jail for the Pilgrim’s Progress. Take comfort, afflicted Christian! When God is about to make pre-eminent use of a person, He puts them in the fire.
There is something fascinating in grief; though we feel it hurts our peace…we are apt to indulge it and to brood over sorrow till it gives a tincture to the whole frame of our spirits… Dally no more with grief; try to cut short all recollections that feed the anguish of the mind.
Found in Grant Gordon,ed., Wise Counsel: John Newton’s Letters to John Ryland Jr., 2009, letter 40.
When grace penetrates into the depth of an anguished soul, joy in the Lord anchors faith (William VanGemeren).
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Psalms, Zondervan, www.zondervan.com, 1991, p. 100.
The first man sinned and grieved only for himself, but the second Man knew no sin yet grieved for us so that we would not grieve forever.
Sin, Death, and Grief, Tabletalk, April 2007, p.2, Used by Permission.
God limits the happiness and pleasure we have now precisely so we might not become attached to this world or dependent upon it or fearful of leaving it (dying), as well as to stir in our hearts a longing and yearning and holy anticipation for what is yet to come.
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.177. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
