FROM MOURNING INTO JOY

It was not easy for anybody to accept the death of a very dear loved one because there were moments in your life that you are just staring unmindful on something, as if your world stopped. At times, you are holding on something that reminded you that your dear loved one once held on it as well, you cried. Several times, there are people telling you how your beloved was tremendously used to help them rise from their difficulties, you momentarily rejoiced. Now and then, you have been misunderstood by some people because they don’t feel what you feel, you heaved a sigh.

Indeed, it was not easy to face the loss of a very dear loved one! But praise ye the Lord who gives us comfort through His Word.

The Lord lifted our spirits from mourning into joy through the following Bible verses. These verses comforted us to face the passing away of my beloved wife and the mother of my children who died four years ago, January 23, 2014, at the age of 57 from breast cancer.

John 14:1-31
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ...

John 14:27-29
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-17
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 1:4-6
Who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-22
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ...

John 11:25
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,

Psalm 116:15
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!