Words of Encouragement
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A Time for Everything
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 a time to seek, and a time to lose a time to keep, and a time to cast away a time to tear, and a time to sew a time to keep silence, and a time to speak a time to love, and a time to hate a time for war, and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Let us sing even when we do not feel like it, for in this way we give wings to heavy feet and turn weariness into strength.
John Henry Jowett
There is an anchor for the soul at the cross of Christ, and it is saying to you today, ‘I love you.’ Yes, there is freedom but I have never lost control. It is saying to you, ‘I will take the worst and use it for eternal good.’ It is saying to you, ‘I am painting on a canvas bigger than you can see or understand,’ and it’s saying to you, ‘I understand.’ That cross is saying, ‘I understand.’ And when this stuff happens, we want to run away from God and be made at God and hate God. But when you look at the cross, you can’t because you realize and you can’t stop with the question we all want to ask, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ Or if you are a believer, ‘God why are you letting this happen to me?’ When you look at the cross, another thought emerges and the thought is, ‘Jesus, this happened to you. What’s happening to me, happened to you. You know about pain. You went through loss. You suffered death. You were mistreated. You were rejected. Everything in my life, good and bad, was all put on you.
Louie Giglio
People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
Elisabeth Kubler Ross
He wants you to understand that there are no wasted moments. For His glory He uses everything that's happened, everything that's happening, and everything that will happen - past, present, and future.
Louie Giglio
Although it's difficult today to see beyond the sorrow, may looking back in memory help comfort you tomorrow.
unknown
So you too, when you have mourned and wept, should be comforted again. The Lord and supreme Comforter Jesus Christ, who loved your child even more than you did and who, having first called him through his Word, afterward summoned him to himself and took him from you, comfort and strengthen you, with his grace until the day when you will see your child again in eternal joy.
Martin Luther
Tears have a wisdom all their own. They come when a person has relaxed enough to let go and to work through his sorrow. They are the natural bleeding of an emotional wound, carrying the poison out of the system. Here lies the road to recovery.
F. Alexander Magoun
Our grief is as individual as our lives.
-Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Every point of battle to which you come, where you must draw your sword and fight the enemy, has a possible victory which will prove a rich blessing to your life. Every heavy load that you are called to lift hides in itself some strange secret of strength.
J. R. Miller
You do not need to swindle yourself into thinking that you are strong. You can face your weakness with joy because you know that you have been given grace for that weakness; grace that is not a thing, but a person—the Holy Spirit, who makes you the place where he dwells in power.
Paul David Tripp
There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.
Washington Irving
Heaven will be full of the songs of worshipers who had once been broken people in a broken world, picked up and used for God’s glory.
Louie Giglio
It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth -- and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up -- that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
We do not have to rely on memories to recapture the spirit of those we have loved and lost – they live within our souls in some perfect sanctuary which even death cannot destroy.
Nan Witcomb
Help, God—the bottom has fallen out of my life! Master, hear my cry for help! Listen hard! Open your ears Listen to my cries for mercy. I pray to God—my life a prayer--And wait for what he’ll say and do. My life’s on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning.
Psalm 130:1-2, 5-6
When sorrow comes under the power of Divine grace, it works out a manifold ministry in our lives. Sorrow reveals unknown depths in the soul and unknown capabilities of experience and service. Gay, trifling people are always shallow, and never suspect the little meannesses in their nature. Sorrow is God's plowshare that turns up and subsoils the depths of the soul that it may yield richer harvests. If we had never fallen or were in a glorified state, then the strong torrents of Divine joy would be the normal force to open up all our souls' capacities; but in a fallen world, sorrow, with despair taken out of it, is the chosen power to reveal ourselves to ourselves. Hence it is sorrow that makes us think deeply, long, and soberly. Sorrow makes us go slower and more considerately and introspect our motives and dispositions. It is sorrow that opens up within us the capacities of the heavenly life, and it is sorrow that makes us willing to launch our capacities on a boundless sea of service for God and our fellows.
Streams in the Desert
The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.
Henri Nouwen
You will lose someone you can't live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn't seal back up. And you come through. It's like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly - that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.
Anne Lamott
Whatever it is, the way you tell your Father, I want to see Your face. Hear my cry and reveal Yourself to me as I make room for You to invade my life. I am desperate for more of You. I am here. I am knocking. Intersect my life today with a greater awareness of who You are. Please show me more of Your character and purpose as I set my heart on You. Amen.
Louie Giglio
That’s really what grief has taught me. That I can survive. I used to be afraid that if I experienced grief it would overcome me and I wouldn’t be able to survive the flood of it, that if I actually felt it I wouldn’t be able to get back up. It’s taught me that I can feel it and it won’t swallow me whole. But we come from a culture where we think people have to be strong. I’m a big believer in being vulnerable, open to grief. That is strength. You can’t know joy unless you know profound sadness. They don’t exist without each other.
Elisabeth Kubler -Rossry
The brokenness around you affects you in different ways at different times…At every point and every moment, your life is messier and more complicated than it really ought to be because everything is so much more difficult in such a terribly broken world.But let us also see that this world of ours is more than a broken-down house. It is a broken-down house in the process of being restored.
Paul David Tripp
May it not be the same with us in our weaving? Sometimes it is very dark. We cannot understand what we are doing. We do not see the web we are weaving. We are not able to discover any beauty, any possible good in our experience. Yet if we are faithful and fail not and faint not, we shall some day know that the most exquisite work of all our life was done in those days when it was so dark.
Streams in the Desert
If you are in the deep shadows because of some strange, mysterious providence, do not be afraid. Simply go on in faith and love, never doubting. God is watching, and He will bring good and beauty out of all your pain and tears.
J. R. Miller
And so we can just pour out the fullness of our heart, the burden of our spirit, the sorrow that crushes us, and know that He hears, He loves, He understands, He receives; and He separates from our prayer all that is imperfect, ignorant and wrong, and presents the rest, with the incense of the great High Priest, before the throne on high; and our prayer is heard, accepted and answered in His name.
A. B. Simpson
You keep track of all my sorrows.You have collected all my tears in your bottle.You have recorded each one in your book.
Psalm 56:8
“Death strikes the best of our friends: the most generous, the most prayerful, the most holy, the most devoted must die. And why? It is through Jesus' prevailing prayer--"Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am." It is that which bears them on eagle's wings to heaven. Every time a believer moves from this earth to paradise, it is an answer to Christ's prayer. A good old divine remarks, "Many times Jesus and His people pull against one another in prayer. You bend your knee in prayer and say 'Father, I desire that Your saints be with me where I am'; Christ says, 'Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am.’ up your prayer for your loved one's life, if you could realize the thoughts that Christ is praying in the opposite direction. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am." Lord, You shall have them. By faith, we let them go.”
Charles Spurgeon
Oh, Lord God, answer my prayers! I need to see your tender kindness, your grace, Your compassion, and Your constant love.Just let me see your face, and turn your heart toward me. Come running quickly to your servant.In this deep distress, come and answer my prayer.
(Passion Translation vs 69:16-18)
Come closer as a friend and redeem me. I am burdened and broken by this pain. When your miracle rescue comes to me,it will lift me to the highest place. Then my song will be a burst of praise to you. My glory-shouts will make your fame even more glorious to all who hear my praises! For I know, Yahweh, that my praises mean more to you than all my gifts and sacrifices. All who seek you will see God do this for them, and they’ll overflow with gladness. Let this revive your hearts, all you lovers of God! For Yahweh does listen to the poor and needy and will not abandon his prisoners of love. Let all the universe praise him! The high heavens and everyone on earth, praise him!Let the oceans deep, with everything in them, keep it up! Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; from the end of the earth, I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.
Psalm 61:1-5
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.
Helen Keller
You do not need to swindle yourself into thinking that you are strong. You can face your weakness with joy because you know that you have been given grace for that weakness; grace that is not a thing, but a person—the Holy Spirit, who makes you the place where he dwells in power.
Paul David Tripp
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.
Helen Keller
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!
Revelation 21:4-5 (NIV)
Ears have a wisdom all their own. They come when a person has relaxed enough to let go and to work through his sorrow. They are the natural bleeding of an emotional wound, carrying the poison out of the system. Here lies the road to recovery.
F. Alexander Magoun
“Comfort, comfort my people…”
Isaiah 40:1 (NLT)
In every trial of life, through every difficult circumstance, in testing or persecution, in pain or sorrow, in times of loss and times of tears, in times of sadness and times of loneliness, in times of weakness and times of weariness, God is our Comforter.What does God do when He comforts you? He calls you near and draws you close. He speaks and reassures. He soothes, calms, supports, and consoles. He strengthens you with peace and quiets you with hope. God comforts you with reassurance—holding you up and strengthening you to take the next step.He comforts you with understanding—assuring you that He knows your need and will not leave you. He comforts you with compassion— keeping you ever-close to Him.He comforts you with hope—confirming to your heart that He is working all things together for the good. God comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2 Corinthians 1:4 (NKJV) - Roy Lessin
Weakness simply demonstrates what has been true all along: we are completely dependent on God for life and breath and everything else. Weakness was not the end for me, but a new beginning, because weakness provides the context in which true strength is found. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that he’ll boast in his weakness. It sounds weird and crazy when you first read it, but it’s not. He has come to know that God’s “power is made perfect” in his weakness. You see, weakness is not what you and I should be afraid of. We should fear our delusion of strength.
Paul David Tripp
The old refiner never leaves his crucible, but sits down by it, lest there should be one excessive degree of heat to mar the metal. But as soon as he skims from the surface the last of the dross, and sees his own face reflected, he puts out the fire.
Arthur T. Pierson
When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.
Isaiah 43:2 (NLT)
While we are mourning this loss, others are rejoicing to meet them behind the veil.
John Taylor
The Psalms welcome us to a faith where God's agenda is more important than ours and where we are asked to live out our faith in the context of a disastrously broken world. But this is also precisely where we experience the highest personal joys, as we put our hope in the covenant love of the Lord and make the pursuit of his glory the goal of our lives.
Paul David Tripp
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
2 Corinthians 4:7-9 (NIV)
Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose, there are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
The pressure of hard places makes us value life. Every time our life is given back to us from such a trial, it is like a new beginning, and we learn better how much it is worth, and make more of it for God and man. The pressure helps us to understand the trials of others and fits us to help and sympathize with them. There is a shallow, superficial nature, that gets hold of a theory or a promise lightly, and talks very glibly about the distrust of those who shrink from every trial; but the man or woman who has suffered much never does this, but is very tender and gentle, and knows what suffering really means. This is what Paul meant when he said, "Death worketh in you. ”Trials and hard places are needed to press us forward, even as the furnace fires in the hold of that mighty ship give force that moves the piston, drives the engine and propels that great vessel across the sea in the face of the winds and waves.
A. B. Simpson
There are no obstacles which our Savior’s love cannot overcome. The High Places of victory and union with Christ can be reached by learning to accept, day by day, the actual conditions and tests permitted by God, by laying down of our own will and accepting His. The lessons of accepting and triumphing over evil, of becoming acquainted with grief, and pain, and of finding them transformed into something incomparably precious. Love and Pain go together, for a time at least. If you would know Love, you must know pain too.
Hannah Hunard
Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused.
C. H. Spurgeon