ManageYourEmotionsBook8.5x5.5_RevJULY.indd

the last He will take His stand on the earth” (Job 19:25). How signif- icant is it that these words come from the oldest book in the Bible? A millennium and a half before Jesus lived, died, and was resurrected, Job could look beyond his terrible situation to an afterlife in which his Savior would reign on the earth. As difficult as it is, and as much as we miss those we love, at some point, we must come to the realization that there’s far more to life than this fallen, sin-soaked planet has to offer.Arriving at the acceptance stage of grief, David said this in regard to his loss men- tioned earlier, “Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Samuel 12:23). Upon encountering Martha, Jesus said, “I am the resurrec- tion and the life; he who believes in Me will never die.”Asked if she believed this, Martha replied, “Yes, Lord; I have believed thatYou are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world” (11:25-27). In 1858 Scottish missionary John G. Paton and his wife sailed for the New Hebrides (now calledVanuatu) in the South Pacific. Just three months after arriving on the island of Tanna, his wife passed away.A week after that, his infant son also died. Deep in sorrow, feeling terribly alone, and surrounded by savage people who showed him no sympathy, Paton wrote, “Let those who have ever passed through any similar darkness as of midnight feel for me.As for all other, it would be more than vain to try to paint my sorrows… But for Jesus, and His fellowship… I would have gone mad and died.” 108 I pray you have that same fellowship with Jesus Christ that brings abundant and eternal life and helps you through the times of grief that come your way.

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