Two years ago I wrote this post, thinking about a cousin of mine. This year I repost this story and prayer, thinking of others in our church who have lost loved ones this year. This Advent and Christmas season, let us pray for those who grieve.
Sorrow and mourning will disappear and they will be filled with joy and gladness.
(Isaiah 51:11 NLT)
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy and with my song I praise him.
(Psalm 28:7 NIV)
When we were teenagers, my cousin was one of the kindest, most joyful people I knew—always ready to lend a hand and share a smile. Over the years, our paths diverged, and I’ve only heard occasional updates about him and his family, mostly through the family grapevine. I attended their wedding more than twenty years ago, where I saw two of the happiest people I’d ever met exchange vows. When they had their first child, and later three more, their Christmas letters were filled with joy and pride, showing just how much they treasured their life as a family.Today, I learned of the funeral arrangements for my cousin’s wife. Although I haven’t talked with him in years, I expect that the Joy of the Lord is the strength he and his children are relying on right now.
One of the challenging things about “The Holiday Season” is that in the midst of a world filled with perceived happiness, there are always people in grief. The first Christmas (or any other holiday) without that loved one is especially difficult. I expect that for people who do not know the love, grace, and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, this grief can be overwhelming. But for people like my cousin, his children, and those surrounding them, their hope is in Jesus. They do not grieve as those who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:14), but instead can hear God’s sweet voice of comfort and encouragement. Perhaps God might say something like this to them:
“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. I will restore you, my precious children. You will again be happy and even dance merrily. Tears of joy will stream down your faces, and I will lead you home with great care. You will walk beside quiet streams and on smooth paths where you will not stumble. For I am your Father. You will come home and sing songs of joy; you will be radiant because of the Lord’s good gifts. Your lives will be like a watered garden and all your sorrows will be gone. I will turn your mourning into joy. I will comfort you and exchange your sorrow for rejoicing. For I have given rest to the weary and joy to the sorrowing.” (adapted from Jeremiah 31:4, 9, 12-13, 25 NLT)
The next days, weeks, and months will likely be a roller coaster of emotions for this grieving man and his family. I expect there will be wonderful memories, deep loneliness, and perhaps some mild chaos as they realign their lives to this loss. Moments of heaviness may try to impede. But my prayer is that the joy of the Lord – the joy he knew as a teenager and has (likely) carried him through adulthood – would be his strength. I pray that God would be his strength and shield, his helper, the one he trusts, and that he would praise God and allow his Heavenly Father to replace his sorrow and mourning with holy joy.
If you know people who are grieving during this season, pray for them. Pray for God’s everlasting and unfailing love to be poured out upon them, that God will comfort them and give them rest, and that God will turn their mourning into joy. May they join with the Psalmist in saying, “Why would I fear the future? Only goodness and tender love pursue me all the days of my life. Then afterward, when my life is through, I’ll return to your glorious presence to be forever with you!” (Psalm 23:6 TPT)
Comforter God,
In this season of holidays, celebration, and forced cheerfulness, we pray for those who are grieving the loss of loved ones. In these days of grief, be their strength and shield, their helper, and the One they trust. We pray that your everlasting and unfailing love will be poured out upon them and that your goodness and tender love will pursue them all the days of their lives. Give them peace in their present and hope in their future. Holy Spirit, help those who grieve to praise and rejoice in you, their God, even as you ease their tears, sorrow, sadness and mourning and replace them with your joy. We ask this in Christ’s name, Amen.
“Beloved brothers and sisters, we want you to be quite certain about the truth concerning those who have passed away, so that you won’t be overwhelmed with grief like many others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who died while believing in him” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 TPT)
Long ago the Lord said to Israel:
“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.
With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.
4 I will rebuild you, my virgin Israel.
You will again be happy
and dance merrily with your tambourines.
9 Tears of joy will stream down their faces,
and I will lead them home with great care.
They will walk beside quiet streams
and on smooth paths where they will not stumble.
For I am Israel’s father,
and Ephraim is my oldest child.
12 They will come home and sing songs of joy on the heights of Jerusalem.
They will be radiant because of the Lord’s good gifts—
the abundant crops of grain, new wine, and olive oil,
and the healthy flocks and herds.
Their life will be like a watered garden,
and all their sorrows will be gone.
13 The young women will dance for joy,
and the men—old and young—will join in the celebration.
I will turn their mourning into joy.
I will comfort them and exchange their sorrow for rejoicing.
25 For I have given rest to the weary and joy to the sorrowing.” (from Jeremiah 31 NLT)