Today, we're going to take on a posture of peace by grieving with God.
Hi, I'm Lindsay Van Zale.
Posture is a podcast that serves as a short, audible fist bump to remind you that God is
in everything.
Together, we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace.
As we continue this week in deepening our friendship with God, I'd like to take today
to talk about a not-so-fun topic, but a necessary element in strengthening our relationship,
and that is processing pain and grieving with God.
In episode 38, I read the cornerstone scripture for the Posture podcast, which is Isaiah 26.3,
and we talked about how trust in the Lord is the foundation for perfect peace.
Now, I think there are three key trust issues, or three main questions, really, that many
of us wrestle with over and over again throughout our lives that keep us from fully accessing
that perfect peace.
The first question, is God good?
The second, does God really love me?
And third, is God near to me?
You know, we say things like, I just feel so distant from God right now, or we pray
prayers asking for Him to show up in the room or show up in the meeting as if He's left
us.
Now, all of those questions typically surface the most when we are in a place of pain or
grief.
And I think many of us know this, so out of our devotion to the Lord, we choose to put
off pain or ignore grief because we'd rather our trust just not be messed with.
You know, we want to be people of faith.
But here is what I have found in the Word of God.
Matthew 5, verse 4 says, Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Psalm 126, verse 5 says, Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy.
Psalm 147, verse 3 says, The Lord heals the brokenhearted, and He binds up their wounds.
Psalm 34, verse 18 says, The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and He saves those who
are crushed in spirit.
And 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 13 talks about how the people of God do not grieve like the
rest of the world who have no hope.
There are plenty of scriptures acknowledging that there will indeed be times of pain and
grief in our lives, but the promise is that the pain and grief is not going to lead us
to the same outcomes that the world experiences, which is hopelessness.
But instead, we can grieve because we have hope.
I used to never admit when I was in pain emotionally, mentally, or even physically at times, like
when I was sick, because I believed that it would hurt my faith.
I believed that to express the pain was a depletion of my faith, if you will.
But with these promises in mind, I actually now realize that to ignore pain lacks faith
because it implies that I actually believe that God can't heal me from my pain.
There have been times when I have thought, if I start crying right now, I don't think
I'm ever going to stop.
I think I will permanently be depressed.
And there have been other times when I thought, if I admit how much this person has hurt me,
I'm going to be taken over with bitterness and I'm not going to be able to break free
from offense.
You know, I've also thought at times, if I think about all that has been lost, I'm going
to become hopeless.
You know, all of those beliefs about the pain actually bred an unbelief in me about God's
goodness and His faithfulness, because I wasn't expecting to be comforted.
I wasn't expecting to reap joy.
I wasn't expecting Him to heal my broken heart or bind up my wounds.
I wasn't expecting Him to draw near to me while I dealt with my brokenness.
Instead, I was expecting to get stuck in the pain forever.
And if you can relate, I want you to know, God did not save you from your sins to leave
you a prisoner to pain.
He will do what He promised to do.
He will comfort and heal and redeem and restore, and He will make you whole, but you have to
trust Him.
You see, I had the faith that God could do all those things.
I believed that God could heal and He could redeem and He could restore, but I didn't
trust fully that He could do it for me.
me. So instead of grieving with him and entrusting him with my pain, I took on
the responsibility of managing my own pain by internalizing it and refusing to
grieve. But God is so faithful and the Holy Spirit led me in truth, led me into
this word, these promises, and now when there is pain, I'm quick to bring it to
God. I process it with him and I grieve with him. You might be asking, like, how do
you do that? Well, I do it just like I would with a trustworthy friend. I talk
about it, I cry with him, I ask him hard questions, and yet I do all those things
with an expectation now, a different expectation. I come expecting to receive
comfort and healing and restoration and redemption and hope. You know, as I'm
recording this podcast right now, we are in the midst of Holy Week and we are
leading into a full-blown celebration of Jesus's resurrection on the cross.
Isaiah 53 4 says that on the cross Jesus took up your pain and he bore your
suffering. Jesus can bear your pain. It's never been too much for him to handle. So
today, if you are holding on to pain by trying to ignore it or internalize it,
take time to grieve with God. Give him the opportunity to comfort you and prove
his faithfulness. And don't believe the lie that if you also seek out a trusted
friend or counselor to talk during your your time of grief that it lacks faith
somehow. God is so kind to give us the gift of each other, I think especially
for times like this when there's pain and there's grief. So today, know this,
you can sow in tears with a trust that you will reap with joy. The promise of
perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26 3 and in Hebrew it is shalom shalom,
meaning complete wholeness. Nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you
are in Jesus. Let's declare this together. Today I am kept in perfect
peace. With my whole heart I trust the Lord. I am strong. I am victorious. I am
whole. Remember friend, you are a living testimony of Jesus's ultimate win. Not
because of anything you did but because of what he did for you. With every step
you take today, you're putting Jesus's victory on display and Satan's defeat on
replay.