Good Grief
It is good to grieve. It is helpful and healing. When we wait to let go of things that bother us, we tend to emotionally "constipate" ourselves. Sometimes we are backed up with hurtful thoughts and feelings especially in our closest relationships.
As a wife, I was queen of stuffing things inside. I would wait and wait to share some of my most deep heartfelt issues with Maurice. I figured that I was overreacting. On a good day, I would say that I was just a forgiving person, but the truth was, that I was not dealing with my emotions in a healthy way. I needed to grieve. Sometimes it was something simple, other times it was overwhelming. When things would finally surface, I would find myself very angry and I would not communicate well at all.
Grieving is not just for when we lose someone close to us. It is also for other loses as well. Consider these:
Sometimes we grieve our sinful habits! We no longer engage in certain activities and we miss them. There may be broken relationships due to your newly found life in Christ. Let's face it. Sin feels good, but it is not good for us. It is truly "good grief" in that case.
The bible tells us not to grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30, KJV). The Spirit is with us to convict us of our wrong. When we ignore His tug on our hearts, He is grieved. We are ignoring Him. We are not sharing with Him. We push Him out when we do not give Him access.
So how do we move on? These areas are tender for us, like a scabbed wound that we do not want to peel off. As true as that is, we must remember that Jesus died for all our wounds - physical, mental, emotional and otherwise. Only He can make a scabbed area brand new! Everything is colored blue when we view it through our hurt and pain. God doesn't just want to cover your scars. He wants to completely restore you.
We have to face our grief so that we can overcome it. Acknowledge that you need to deal with it and then pray and ask the Lord to remove that burden from your soul. Life may "take you there" with all of its twists and turns, but be sure that the same God that gave you life can also renew it. Pour out everything that you have stuffed inside and trust God with it. Do it over and over until all that is left is a vessel that He can fill. And He will fill it. He is waiting to exchange our grief with His grace.
As a wife, I was queen of stuffing things inside. I would wait and wait to share some of my most deep heartfelt issues with Maurice. I figured that I was overreacting. On a good day, I would say that I was just a forgiving person, but the truth was, that I was not dealing with my emotions in a healthy way. I needed to grieve. Sometimes it was something simple, other times it was overwhelming. When things would finally surface, I would find myself very angry and I would not communicate well at all.
Grieving is not just for when we lose someone close to us. It is also for other loses as well. Consider these:
Sometimes we grieve our sinful habits! We no longer engage in certain activities and we miss them. There may be broken relationships due to your newly found life in Christ. Let's face it. Sin feels good, but it is not good for us. It is truly "good grief" in that case.
The bible tells us not to grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30, KJV). The Spirit is with us to convict us of our wrong. When we ignore His tug on our hearts, He is grieved. We are ignoring Him. We are not sharing with Him. We push Him out when we do not give Him access.
So how do we move on? These areas are tender for us, like a scabbed wound that we do not want to peel off. As true as that is, we must remember that Jesus died for all our wounds - physical, mental, emotional and otherwise. Only He can make a scabbed area brand new! Everything is colored blue when we view it through our hurt and pain. God doesn't just want to cover your scars. He wants to completely restore you.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17, KJV).
We have to face our grief so that we can overcome it. Acknowledge that you need to deal with it and then pray and ask the Lord to remove that burden from your soul. Life may "take you there" with all of its twists and turns, but be sure that the same God that gave you life can also renew it. Pour out everything that you have stuffed inside and trust God with it. Do it over and over until all that is left is a vessel that He can fill. And He will fill it. He is waiting to exchange our grief with His grace.
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