Biblical Comfort in Affliction

John Bunyan's wife, Elizabeth, has just found out that her sorrow over her husband's imprisonment is compounded by the loss of her newborn child.  She has been lamenting over her afflictions & her faith is sorely tested.  Her good neighbor, sister Harrow, strives to give biblical comfort to soothe her grieving heart.

"Well, shall we receive good at His hand & not evil?  But what has He promised, sister Bunyan?  Don't He say that all things shall work together for our good?  Think of this.  He don't say some things, or most things, but all things.  And if we are His children, we will believe what He says; we will not doubt His word; we cannot.  Look how He brought His poor old Job through all his afflictions, & made his last days his best ones.  Your troubles are not equal to his; he had everything taken from him - houses, lands, children, camels, & all his servants - & you know he had a good many, for he was a rich man.  And then he was afflicted in his own body - all covered with boils - the sorest things in the world. . . . Just think of him in all his distresses, & how God brought him through them all.  And then you will be willing to trust Him for yourself.  He was given to us as an example to follow."

"But Job was an upright man, sister Harrow, & I'm a poor, weak, sinful creature.  I don't deserve any good at God's hands.  I am so prone to forget Him.  I don't love Him as I ought to.  I don't serve Him as I should.  He ought to scourge me, I am so wicked."

"Ah, sister Bunyan, you don't think anybody deserves any good thing from God, do you?  Oh no; it is not for our good works that He loves us; it is all His own sovereign love & mercy.  Oh, I tell you we have nothing to commend us to His favor, as your dear good man said the last time he spoke at my house; & we can't do anything.  So much sin - so much sin always here in the heart - that God can't find anything in us to love us for.  It is only for Jesus' sake - only because He died.  There's our hope, sister Bunyan - nowhere else - no, no, nowhere else.  Jesus is all, all, sister Bunyan.  No merit but His.  Yes, blessed Jesus!  Thou art all, & in all; the beginning & the end . . . ."

~Excerpted from Mary Bunyan:  A Tale of Religious Persecution and Heroic Faith by Sallie R. Ford

A Prayer about Good Grief and God’s Comfort ~ Scotty Smith

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

~Matt. 5:4

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts.

~2 Thess. 2:16-17

Heavenly Father, I’ve enjoyed hard work most of my life. I don’t mind investing the hours, expending the energy and breaking a sweat (physical and mental) for things that really matter. On the other hand, heart work has been more difficult for me, especially the heart work of grief. I don’t like grief because I don’t like loss, and I don’t like loss because it exposes my brokenness, and it makes me feel vulnerable and out of control—which, of course, I really am.

But I trust you Father, and because you tell me grief work is gospel work, I’ll roll up the sleeves of my heart and get busy. Send your Spirit into this moment and enable me to experience the blessing of mourning—the blessing of grieving as you intend. Then, and only then, will I enjoy the comfort you alone can give.

Help me to grieve the ways I grieve you, Father. I know I’ll never lose your love. I know that I can’t make you love me more, or less, by what I do. But give me the good grief of confessing my sins from a heart of love—a heart that loves your glory more than anything else. Help me to cry out with King David, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” No condemnation in Christ must not lead to no contrition for my sin. Give me guiltless humility.

Help me grieve the ways I hurt others. Don’t let me get used to wounding anyone’s heart. Forgive me when I make excuses for loving poorly, or try to justify my unkind words, critical attitude or aloof indifference. Help me humble myself, listen to the stories of people I hurt, and repent to your glory. Give me gospel sensibilities.

Help me to grieve the ways others hurt me. Neither minimizing nor demonizing the failures of others is in line with the truth of the gospel. I cannot forgive what I’m unwilling to voice, and I will not forgive what I’m unwilling to release. Forgive me for downplaying the ways I’ve been deeply hurt. Denial and overlooking aren’t the same. Forgive me for holding some people hostage to my bitterness. What I usually call righteous anger is more often self-righteous spite. Mercy-fy my heart.

Come, Lord Jesus, come gracious Father, you love us perfectly and completely, and you have given us “eternal comfort and good hope through grace.” Come now and grant us good grief gospel comfort today. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ kind and kingly name.

It's good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace.

~Hebrews 13:9

Sweet Wordless Comfort

Tears began rolling down my face.  The talk had briefly turned towards the topic of Ginger on this the two-week anniversary of her death.  My precious 12-year-old niece draped one arm around me & laid her head on my shoulder.  She didn't say a word.  She didn't have to.  Words aren't always necessary to give comfort.

Comfort From God's Word

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)

So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. (John 16:22)

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  (James 1:2-4)

This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life. (Psalms 119:50)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 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.  (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)