What are you Mourning?
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Matthew 5:4
Matthew 5:4
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Mourning Myself
Mourning Myself
When looking throughout my life and sharing my testimony, it begins for me to recognize that I was separated from God first. This separation for me allows me to understand what caused that separation in the first place.
In my heart, if I knew something was right but was tempted to ignore that and decide to do what I wanted instead of what is the holy and righteous path, then I have decided to let temptation lead me to sin.
Once I understood in my mind that this choice in my life separated me from God’s relationship, I began to see the difference between a life lead by myself and one lead by God.
Now, I have in no way perfected this journey. There are many times in my life where I thought I had left old temptations buried with the person who I was before I met Christ. However, we are told this is a daily choice.
Mourning for Others
Mourning for Others
Looking out into the world we have many reasons to mourn. We see the war just begun between Russia and Ukraine. An unnecessary evil between people; some of those who do not mourn their sins nor have any concern for the welfare of others.
How does a person go out and demand that others are injured for their own good? When people threaten one another and forget to mourn for their own situation, what comfort shall they receive?
Some people have an incapacity to have empathy for others. They have concerned themselves so much with what they believe is best instead of what God has deemed best.
Receiving Comfort from Mourning
Receiving Comfort from Mourning
Thankfully, all of those who accept God for who He is and what He has accomplished for us through His son Jesus Christ will one day receive comfort from their mourning.
Perceptions about how comfort is received for a disciple varies. Some believe they must perpetually be joyous over their newfound revelations of what has happened when a person repents from their sins. This perception disregards the state of reality that we still live in a world filled with people who may cause pain to others and whom are still living in sin.
Others believe they must remain in a state of contorted suffering for their sins and ever bring them before God. For this perception, the person does not believe that God has actually forgiven them. They must continually ask forgiveness for the same sin and may not understand the washing of their iniquity.
This is true and does happen when one recognizes where they were and where they are going. However, there is much more than the individual’s repentance at stake.
Love for others demands that they also recognize in their hearts they are to mourn for their own sins. We are to then help others through discipleship by first aiding them in understanding what caused their separation from God, their sin, and what must now be conveyed to others.
There are many examples throughout the bible that proclaim how those who mourn are comforted.
David’s Psalm 51 to God proclaims his repentance and mourning after Nathan the prophet came to him, after David had been with Bathsheba.
Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me.
Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.
Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise.
For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
The brokenness realized through the sins of David were mourned for, cast before God and David then proclaims that because he knows of God’s mercy, he will then go out and teach transgressors the ways of God so they too may be converted to God.
Proper ways of mourning
Proper ways of mourning
“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
When Jesus allowed Lazarus to die so that He could then raise him, Jesus wept and mourned over the loss of His friend. John 11:35. There may be a reason that the shortest verse in the Bible is Jesus wept. There is a time and place for mourning, but we are to move onward to the glorification of the bride of Christ.
Mourn for Yourselves
Mourn for Yourselves
You must all recognize your own sins and temptations which stand in your way of the fullness of the relationship you may be blessed with. Blessed is the one who recognizes their own sin, their own temptations, their own faults, and humbly pours this out to God in a repentant manner.
Imagine the person you are now who has those temptations and sins standing in the way of so much more that God has to offer. Now that person must die daily to their temptations, sins, and those things which prevent one from coming closer to Christ.
If you dwell in the mourning of what you are losing, Christ reminds us that the mourning must be short.
But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
Those who remain in their sins are already dead. You may step away from that person and truly be born again. Mourn, be comforted, and move towards God’s embrace for what He has in store for your life.
Stott, John. The Beatitudes : Developing Spiritual Character. Westmont: InterVarsity Press, 2020. Accessed February 27, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Our Church is a place of Comfort
Our Church is a place of Comfort
Jesus desires us to be comforting to those who are making the first steps to recognizing who He is. Often people step through the doors of a church and are turned away because they do not understand the path of discipleship.
It is not their place to know the full path before beginning the journey. As mentioned in the first beatitude, those who are poor in spirit have come to the recognition they are lacking in something. Our church must be the place where they are comforted when they declare they are lost in sin, temptation, and worldly desires.
They are infants in Christ, not adults. Churches must nourish them, care for them and comfort them in their needs as they begin this journey.
Lastly, the church itself must always put Christ’s role first and recognize we die to ourselves daily and begin this journey anew daily. Therefore, when we walk along the path, we recognize the markers and help those who have never walked it before understand the need for mourning first over our sins but moving on to accomplish what God has in store for us.