Daily Devotional

REJOICING OVER ADVERSITY

July 19

eloved, have you lost a loved one and are you having great difficulty getting past the grief? Indeed, grief is a statement of your love for the person. However, if the grieving is preventing you from continuing your life in Christ, and especially if it has gone much longer and deeper than what is natural and understandable, you need to hear some things. If you could speak to your loved one, he/she would say, "Why are you holding on to me so tightly, I am not where you left me (in a grave in the earth)! I am now enjoying the presence of the Lord God, and I am walking with the Lord Jesus, laughing, talking, rejoicing--- and I am very much more alive where I am in heaven than I could ever be on earth!" Your loved one would say, "Release me into the presence of my Father! It is unhealthy for you to be angry at God for taking me home! I would not come back to you and to the world of pain and sickness for anything! I love you, but you will come to me someday in the perfect timing of the Lord!” Now, beloved, what are you going to do about this? It was an appointment with God that took your loved one to heaven in the perfect timing of the Lord! "And it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the Judgment." (Hebrews 9:27a) You must remember that your Father in Heaven is never cruel or spiteful. Your loved one was taken at the best time that he/she could be taken. The Savior knew that now that your beloved was taken, he/she was the closest at that instance to the Lord than at any other time possible. God knows the future. He knows if your loved one may have expressed a weakness to sin or unrighteousness which would have lessened his/her reward in Glory if they had lived longer on the earth. Because of this, you should rejoice for your Father/Mother/child/friend/family members going home at the perfect divine moment for them. This is good for you to accept, Child of God!

Prayer

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Father, why should I ever think that you have not done the very best for me and my loved ones? I know that you have! I bless you that they are with you in Eternal Glory, and that I will go to them soon and we shall all forever be with the Lord. For this I thank you and give you praise in Jesus' name, amen!