The
Promise, Patience and the Perfect Love of God in the Middle of Grief or Death of a Loved One
2
Peter 3: 9 The Lord is not
slow in fulfilling His promise, in the sense in which some men speak of slowness. But He bears patiently with you, His desire being that no one should perish but that all
should come to repentance.
I want to share three things about God’s character: His Promise, His Patience and His Prefect Love in a time of grief.
His
Promise
God does what He promises. He keeps His Word. If He promises to heal you, He will answer so just ask Him in faith, believing and not doubting. But remember that your timing and His timing are not the same. Need Him to comfort you? Just ask Him. He promised in the Book of Joshua 1: 5 “that He would never leave you nor forsake you”. This is especially in time of trouble, pain, sadness and loss. So we ask God for what we need in faith and believe Him and His Word. Need peace? Ask God for it! Comfort? Strength? Ask God for it because it’s available. Because it’s what He promises. People cannot give you peace but God can. People cannot give you strength But God can. Need Restoration? Need Comfort? Ask Him. So remember what the Word said: The Lord is not slow in fulfilling His promise. God always keeps His Word.
His Patience
God
is patient. He is concerned about everything that concerns you. Your health,
your loss, your sadness, your grief, and your restoration. But He bears
patiently with you. He is patient because
He understands us. For example we can examine the environment at a funeral. Some come to a funeral to see family and friends they have
not seen in years. Some come to comfort the family. Some just come to see. But
God has another purpose. He wants to show that there is life even in death.
Life in those who are dead to Him and His Word. I mean spiritually dead. The body may be physically dead, but if you don’t know Christ
you are spiritually dead even when your body is alive. But God is
patient and want you to know that you can easily make this change by simply
accepting Jesus Christ . Don’t let the opportunity
pass. God gives us between 70 and 120 years on earth. This is not much time compared to
eternity. Let us take lessons from every loss before Christ returns.
His Perfect Love
God loves you. He does not put requirements like man does for His love. We may love people because they are from the same family, same
church, same community, same nationality, same educational level, same economic or social background.
The Bible says in John 3: 16 “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotton son, that whosoever, believeth on Him,
should not perish but have eternal life”.
Also God does not only love Christians and the church, but the whole world. He loves every human on the planet. His love has no limit.
The word Whosoever" is important. God wants to emphasize who He’s
talking about - the world, the society at large. What does He want? He wants you saved through Jesus Christ . That is why he sent His son Jesus into the world to die and pay for all the sins of all humanity once and for all. He desires that we accept
Jesus Christ as Lord and Master of our life and believe that God raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 10: 9-10). He will not force anyone to accept Christ - it is a decision that each individual must make. The result of this positive decision is salvation and everlasting life. There may be physical death but you will have eternal life.
Death does not eliminate eternal life. Why? Because Jesus
by His death and and resurrection, has conquered death and the grave.
This give us confidence that there is eternal life with God after death. So we will not fear, we will not worry, we will not let grief or sadness control us forever. Grief is for a time, sadness is for a time, loss is for a time. In the middle of our loss and grief, hold on to the Promises of God, the Patience of God and the Perfect love of God.
May His promise, patience and love give you strength. So
remember the Promises of God, the Patience of God and the Perfect Love of God. In them
is strength and comfort.
