Jesus Understands Our Grief and Sorrow

Jesus understands your grief and sorrow

Jesus truly does understand what it's like to experience shattered dreams and what it is like to go through deep grief. Jesus was familiar with the death of dreams and grieved deeply.

In Luke 13:43, Jesus looks over Jerusalem and is in very deep pain and grief over His chosen people who have rejected Him and the salvation He offered, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" Jesus understands and feels your sorrow over dreams that have been broken because Jesus has walked that journey ahead of you.
But Jesus faced His deepest sorrow, pain, loss and grief in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was there that Jesus clung to His heavenly Father. He had to trust the Father because it was the only way he could face the agony of the cross.

We, too, will have a Gethsemane experience. Have you felt as if your life has ended because your dream is shattered? Have you felt as if you just couldn't go on? Have you experienced grief so deep and so painful that it even hurt to breathe, walk or even eat? This is a Gethsemane experience. Jesus said in Matthew 26:38 "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death." Have you begged God to change things - to turn back the hands of time - to remove your suffering?

Jesus understands your pain. Jesus accepted the pain that was ahead of Him but not until He went through terrible agony in the garden. Even when you cry out to God...begging...there will come a time when you realize that you, too, have to drink from your cup of suffering, pain and loss.

Yes, Jesus has walked that road ahead of you, but He is also there beside you in your grief. Jesus never leaves us alone. All you have to do is call on Him. Put your hope and trust in Him as you go through the grief process. He will give you more strength and courage to face life minute by minute. Even though we suffer in the loss of shattered dreams God is still good....His promises never fail.

Cling to Jesus.

Mary Ann Kiernan is Intake Manager at the Colony of Mercy

UPCOMING EVENT
Mary Ann is one of the featured speakers at our 3rd Annual Family and Friends Addiction Seminar: Binding Up the Broken-Hearted. To learn more about grief please join us for a day designed to provide practical help for individuals in relationship with an addicted person. It is our desire to give hope to the hopeless and to encourage the discouraged. Saturday, October 11th, 2008. 8:00 am-3:30 pm Sponsored by America's Keswick - Addiction Recovery Ministries. It will be held at an off-campus location: Whiting Bible Church, 95 Lacey Rd., Whiting, NJ 08759. $25.00 per person includes continental breakfast, lunch and materials. Call today for reservations and directions 732.350.1187 x. 10.