Lucy, one of the cartoon characters on Peanuts, is always saying to Charlie Brown, “Good Grief.” Charlie Brown will say “Good Grief” sometimes when things are not working so well for him. The good grief is a phrase of disgust, but I believe there is good grief in life.
"The expression, "Good grief" is called a euphemisms. Euphemisms are words we say that are more socially acceptable than what we would otherwise choose to say. "Good grief!", is an expression that means we are very irritated or upset about something. The "...grief" part of the expression refers to the emotional sense of being irritated or upset; grieving about what has happened. The "Good..." part of the expression is a reference to God which is intended to add emphasis and impact to the expression. Many people do not like to say the word God in public conversations so they often substitute the word "Good" instead. "Good" and "grief" have their own separate meanings as words. But, in this case, the expression "Good grief" does not have a lot to do with the definitions of the individual words. It is simply a way of saying you are very upset about something."
"The expression, "Good grief" is called a euphemisms. Euphemisms are words we say that are more socially acceptable than what we would otherwise choose to say. "Good grief!", is an expression that means we are very irritated or upset about something. The "...grief" part of the expression refers to the emotional sense of being irritated or upset; grieving about what has happened. The "Good..." part of the expression is a reference to God which is intended to add emphasis and impact to the expression. Many people do not like to say the word God in public conversations so they often substitute the word "Good" instead. "Good" and "grief" have their own separate meanings as words. But, in this case, the expression "Good grief" does not have a lot to do with the definitions of the individual words. It is simply a way of saying you are very upset about something."
Grief is good because it means that we treasure a person in our heart.
Grieving or missing a person is a sign that you love that person. Even when I went on a trip to visit my daughter in Los Angeles for a week, I missed my husband who did not go with me due to he did not have enough vacation time to take a week off work. Of course I'm going to miss my husband of almost 15 years! He is on vacation from me that may be 30 or more years before I see him again!
People with loss experience others condemning them for having grief over the holidays for their loved ones. I am like the woman in the Bible caught in adultery only I've been caught in grief and people have thrown stones at me...you should not be having this grief...God does not want you to be like this...you should be over this by now. Some people don't know what to say so they will say cliches like "trust God" or quote a scripture. Even at my husband's funeral someone who did not know me or my husband very well, but was there with a friend, came up to me and said, "He was a Christian wasn't he?" I know they did not think I should be crying or sad because my husband went to heaven.
Jesus experienced separation anxiety and asked “why” from his Heavenly Father when he was on the cross and said, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” He was despised and rejected--a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Isaiah 53:3
I experienced a great victory this holiday. It was getting free from condemnation about being sad. We know that the devil is the accuser of the brethren and there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. I actually had an experience of sensing the evil one leaving me alone recently.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, Roman 8:1
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. Revelation 12:10
The enemy left me because he can't make me feel guilty about missing my husband anymore. I asked God and prayed on many occasions, for Jesus to please take me to heaven since my heart/my treasure is in heaven, there is no one or anything now that makes me want to live here anymore. The great love of my life is in heaven. The Lord let me know he does not throw any rocks at me, he does not condemn me for grief or praying to go to heaven. He understands and he is taking care of all my treasures (people) in heaven. He understands that I miss my husband and my loved ones. The only treasures I can take with me from earth are people. I can't take anything else, but He does not want me to miss the last step of my life on earth, like I missed the last step of my stairs at home and fractured my ankle.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:34
I have a friend whose wife lost two children one as a stillborn baby and one at birth. He said his wife had a dream that their grandmother in heaven was holding their babies and taking care of them. That was God's comfort to them.
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:20-21
Another example of good grief is the repentance of Mary, i.e. turning away from sin and being sorrowful for sin. Jesus praised Mary that she loved much.
Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. Luke 7:38
Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven--for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." Luke 7:47
The first person I lost in my life was my grandfather during the time I joined a full time Christian ministry and it gave me a greater burden for people who are not Christians. I did not know if my grandfather was a Christian. My grandmother had a stroke and problems with Alzeheimers so although she lived until she was 96 years old, it was like she really was not alive for several years because she could not remember us.
Next, my father developed pancreatic cancer at the time of my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. My mother had planned their first cruise ever and he was very sick on the cruise. It was a period of 1-l/2 years that his manhood was stripped from pancreatic cancer. He lost weight down to skin and bones and was kept alive for awhile on a feeding tube until he developed pneumonia and went into a coma and passed away in a Nursing home soon after Christmas one year. I happened to be the last person that visited him in the Nursing home before he passed away and prayed for him by his bedside. That was a difficult Christmas for all my family and it was hard watching my mother lose her life time companion and subsequent Christmases without my dad. My father had a strong will and he was trying to beat the cancer. My father was a death bed conversion to Christ.
I lost my mother five years later when she went into the hospital to have a problem gall bladder taken out and it was undiagnosed gall bladder cancer. Gall bladder cancer is very rare only 2% of the population gets it. My mother said that she was ready to go be with Jesus and passed away in three days in the hospital after the operation. I lost my sister a few years after my mother from lung cancer as a smoker. She only lived a few months after she found out she had lung cancer. My sister was a Christian, but never got the victory over smoking cigarettes beginning at age 19. I was at my sister's side with my nieces and nephew when she passed away.
There have been expectations after my husband passed away by my in-laws and children in wanting me to host holiday parties, when I want to skip the holidays. I would compare it to when an animal gets ill, it will crawl up in a ball away from everyone and you can nurse and take care of the animal as it lays there and the animal will either get better or it will die. My Heavenly Father has been nursing and taking care of me in my balled-up state.
Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains! For the LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones. Isaiah 49:13
The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing. Isaiah 51:3
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, Isaiah 61:2
Jesus was the God-man and showed affection and grief on occasions as he wept at the tomb of Lazarus and when he raised a widow’s son from the dead. Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; John 11:25 & When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. John 11:33 v. 35 Jesus wept.
Mary lost Joseph (Jesus earthly father) so Jesus was a man acquainted with grief and his mother was a widow. Before he died Jesus took care of his mother as the oldest son by asking John to take care of her as a good and responsible son would do. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. John 19:27
God Where is My Angel of Comfort?
God’s word says that those who are afflicted should pray!
Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. James 5:13
There are times I’ve stayed home from single socials to pray. There is no point in being around singles who don’t understand grief. It’s better for me to either be with people who have an understanding of grief or stay home and pray. Many singles and married couples don’t know how to give comfort. My guess is that maybe people can't give comfort because their mother or father never came up to them and put their arms around them and made them feel better when they fell down and got hurt. Maybe they were told to “suck it up” by their parents or not cry. I liked it when my mother kissed my cut to make the pain go away. I like God’s comfort (My heavenly Father’s hugs and kisses) and comfort from others. I've posted a song written by a single man (never married) Rich Mullins who knew what it was to have God's arms wrapped around him. He had an early death when his Jeep flipped on the interstate. He is eternally in God's bosum now. This scripture talks about God comforting us as a mother: As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem." Isaiah 66:13
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Isaiah 40:1
I was watching a TV episode of Little House on the Prairie about Laura Ingalls how she kept finding messages in a bottle from a woman for help. The bottles were in a creek. I knew that was a message from the Lord that he sent me to the Indian Creek Bible study to help a widow I met through another lady at the study. When I helped the lady, I felt the anointing leave. For awhile, Laura Ingalls was sad every time she found a new bottle in the creek until they found what creek the bottle was coming from and helped the woman. Laura Ingall’s father said she did not have to go to the creek if it made her sad, he did not like her to be sad. I believe our heavenly Father does not like us to be sad or hurt as far as he keeps giving me comfort when I am sad either through nature, through the scriptures, or through a friend.
One time I was sitting on my back deck and saw a pair of love birds and I felt that was a sign from God. My friend said she had all purple flowers bloom outside her house this summer which is a symbol of royalty. I've spoken to many widows that have had numerous signs of encouragement we believe are from God.
who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 2 Cor. 1:4
Many times I'm sad going to single things after being married for so long. Who wants to be single when you were happily married for many years? To me that is like eating dirt when I was eating ice cream. There was a compelling in Laura to help this woman who was sending the messages in a bottle in the creek.
Elijah healed one person of leprosy in his ministry and he visited one widow woman. It has set me free to understand as a Christian, I don’t have to help everyone, only the people that God lays on my heart to help.
I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed--only Naaman the Syrian." Luke 4:25-47
In the movie, “Message in a Bottle” there was a compelling by the woman to understand the deep love that a man could have for his wife that he wrote of his love in letters and put them in a bottle and these were found in other parts of the United States. The journalist put those messages and clues from the bottle together and loved the man who wrote the messages. That is how love is when you meet your mate in life and how God’s love compels us to help others. It’s a compelling love to want to spend a lifetime together.
For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 2 Cor. 5:14
I’m always looking for messages in bottles which are those people that God wants me to comfort in life. Wherever I go, I’m looking for usually just one person that God wants me to help at a single’s social or Bible study. I’m not looking to receive, but to give. It’s more blessed to give than receive. God has His oasis of blessings for me at various places and from certain friends, but on the whole, I believe God has called me to be a sower/giver of his word. It’s the anointing I’m looking for. If there is a wall or not a peson for me to connect with for loss, I take that as a sign from God that the doors are closed to that particular group or Bible study and God wants me to concentrate efforts elsewhere. There is so much loss - it's such a "huge" ministry and one that the Lord has me activity involved in. He has me in the ministry of pure religion: Pure religion and undefiled before God is to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction. James 1:27
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. Isaiah 61:1
Most of us are looking for an angel in life. I have posted a secular song below the other song, because that is where most of us are at as far as where is our angel of comfort? An angel came to Hagar to provide her an oasis in the desert, angels rescued Lot out of Sodom and Gomorrah before it was destroyed, angels rescued Paul and Silas from jail, an angel strengthened Elijah when he was discouraged, etc. When we get a headache we pop a Tylenol pain pill rather than pray and ask God to get rid of our headache and we are constantly looking for Tylenol pain relievers in life. My husband was a Tylenol pain reliever from being divorced. Jesus Christ is the extra extra strength Tylenol pain reliever.
There was a man who was wanting someone to put him in a pool for an angel to heal him, but Jesus came and healed him instead! I watched documentaries on the History Channel about people seeking the shadow or visions of Jesus’mother Mary for healing. I would be concerned to receive healing any way outside of faith in Jesus since any other healing may not last. Mary did not rise from the dead as Jesus did neither did any other saints or prophets.
It's hard to understand the man lying there for a long time. Could the guy scoot himself into the pool of water?
When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." John 5:6-8
There are people like Jacques Cousteau who specialize in diving in the ocean to find buried treasure. I and other widows are picking up our bed and walking as far as checking out ministry opportunities, dating opportunities in life, and the Jacques Cousteau's in life looking for the buried treasure of God's word and the buried treasure God has in store for us still here on earth. God did send us an angel, his sent us his best, he sent his son and God promises with Jesus He will freely give us all things.
The one who did not spare his own Son, but offered him as a sacrifice for all of us, surely will give us all things, along with his son, won't he? Romans 8:32
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17
Though I am the least deserving of all God's people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. Ephesians 3:8
When God asked Abraham to give Isaac, God himself provided a lamb for the sacrifice. When anything in our lives is taken, we can believe God for double fold (like Job lost everything he had). After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before Job 42:10
Hold Me by Rich Mullins
Well sometimes my life just don't make sense at all
When the mountains look so big
And my faith just seems so small
So hold me Jesus 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace
And I wake up in the night and feel the dark
It's so hot inside my soul
I swear there must be blisters on my heart
So hold me Jesus 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace
Surrender don't come natural to me
I'd rather fight You for something I don't really want
Than to take what You give that I need
And I've beat my head against so many walls
Now I'm falling down I'm falling on my knees
And this Salvation Army band is playing this hymn
And Your grace rings out so deep
It makes my resistance seem so thin
I'm singing hold me Jesus 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace "
God Send Me an Angel
It's been 5 months since you went away
Left without a word, nothing to say
And I was the one who gave you my heart and soul
But it wasn't good enough for you, no
So I asked God
(Chorus)
God send me an angel from the heavens above
Send me an angel to heal my broken heart from being in love
Cause all I do is cry
God send me an angel to wipe the tears from my eyes
And I know that it might sound crazy, but after all that I still love you
You wanna come back in my life, but now there's something that I have to do
I have to tell the one that I once adored that they can't have my love no more
My heart can't take no more lies and my eyes are all out of cries
So God
Now you had me on my knees, begging God please, to send you back to me
I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, and you made me feel like i could not breathe when I
All I wanted to do was feel your touch, and to give you all of my love
Took my love for granted want my loving now, but you can't have it o God
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