Beatitudes: Mourning and Comfort

What helps you get through a tough Day?

Often when we are faced with a tough day we face it in different ways. Each of us has our own coping mechanisms. For me I often will retreat and isolate myself. What is bad about that it is not the best thing for me to do. When I isolate myself I often stay in my own head and I don’t accomplish what I need to get done in that day because of that mental focus is not where it needs to be. If I am honest in recent years the best thing that I can do is I will text Angie and tell her I am having a rough day. It is amazing how that simple act can help me refocus and get some work done. When we face changllenges with our day we have to find the ways that we can get out of our own way and move forward. Yet, that doesn’t mean we can’t have a bad day. Let’s read the Beatitudes again tonight.

Matthew 5:1–12 NIV

1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them. He said: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 5:4 NIV

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

What does it mean to Mourn? Is mourning exclusive to the passing of someone?

Mourning is not limited to people passing. Grief is not only experienced when someone dies. Mourning is the expression of sorrow, sadness, grief or regret over death. That is the definition but you can feel these expressions in life over other things. When we open up the idea that mourning, or sadness, grief, pain can be experienced in other areas of our life we can gain some new insight in this passage.

How are you doing today?

This is a question that we ask people all the time yet, what is the response that many people will give even if it isn’t true.

I am good, or fine, or some other basic response we give because we don’t know if we can be honest with others.

We don’t share with others the truth of how we are doing for many reasons. This is particularly challenging in the church because there is a fear of being judged or looked down upon when we are honest. The church should be the last place that we don’t share how we are doing. Don’t get me wrong this isn’t always true but it can be difficult when we don’t feel comfortable with being open and honest with each other. IT is only when we come to realize the value of sharing that we can really grow in our faith and our relationships with other believers.

When we are honest about the reality of sadness we can open the door for comfort.

We have to recognize that we can experience sadness, mourning, grief about the things in our life. WE can face this hardship but we do not have to be alone in it. This goes beyond just support systems in our life. When we open ourselves to feeling pain and hardship in life and bringing it to God we can grow deeper in our faith. It is when we are open we go deeper. It is in this attitude we see that we can draw closer to Jesus. It is when we grow deeper with Jesus that we find that we suddenly are confronted with the truth of our relationship with Him. It is in these moments of closeness that God convicts us of the things in our life that we need to work on.

We can’t allow conviction to be thought of as shame though. Shame is something completely different than what God is doing in our lives in that moment. When we feel the Spirit convicting us it is the challenge and the embrace of going deeper with him that is moving us and motivating us. It is in this that we find not humiliation or despair but we find joy, we find comfort.

What is something that God has convicted you of and how did you respond when he convicted you?

This is a challenging question and is difficult for many to answer because there is an element of confession that comes with professing what we have been convicted of. For me the response leads to relief. When God has convicted at first it is frustration or disappointment at the loss of whatever it is. Then I move pass those fleeting moments and I see that power of what God is doing in my life and I long for that moment to draw closer to Him.

Have you ever mourned or been saddened by the state of our world?

One of the deeper aspects of the idea of mourning is the experience of feeling loss and pain for the suffering of this world. I have experienced this a lot in this past year. I look at the world around me and I can’t help but feel saddened by the state that we live in. The world has increasingly become so focused on oneself that it is almost unrecognizable. IT feels at time that gone are the days where people care about each other and want to help each other. We have become a society that is so focused on how we can get what we want or what makes us feel good that all else is lost.

Our heart breaks for the world and that is a normal response. We should have a heart that is breaking for the way the world is. It is in this attitude of grief and mourning that helps us to move to Compassion

Mourning leads to compassion

When we mourn we can resonate and connect with the emotions necessary for compassion. We grow deeper and we look at the state of the world and we want to do something about it. It is in this compassion that we can become the hands and the feet of Jesus and we can affect the world around us. It is also the place that we can find comfort in the knowledge that we can affect change in the world around us. It is the place that we need to find ourselves and seek him more.