The Lord tells us “Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted;” but the Lord’s initiative for us in mourning and sorrow is sometimes hard to realize. When we are sanctified by afflictions, it usually softens the difficulties and rigor of this life that we live. In addition, they also bring in subjection the “wildness” and the nature of man. They will temper human ambitions and burn out the dross of selfishness and worldliness. They humble pride and subdue fierce passions.

They also make manifest to us our own hearts, weaknesses, faults, blemishes, and perils. They teach us patience and submission and if our spirits are unruly, they discipline them. When it is all said and done sorrows and afflictions deepen and enrich our life experience.

The Ministry of Sorrow as it Relates

      Why is it better to go into the house of mourning than to the house of feasting? Ecclesiastes 7:2 tells us, “it is better to go to the house of mourning, than to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to heart.”

When it is all said and done sorrows and afflictions deepen and enrich our life experience.

       Are the righteous freed from afflictions in this world? No they are not. In Psalms 34:19 it states, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but The Lord delivereth him out of them all.” What did David a man after God’s own heart ask God to teach him? “Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail I am.” Does God delight to afflict any? In Lamentations 3:31-33 states, “For the Lord will not cast off forever; But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.”

God never chastises us or afflict us to leave us in despair. Let us look at Job 5: 17 & 18 it states,”Behold, happy is the man whom God correct: therefore despise thou not the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: He woundeth, and His make whole.”

…one thing aside from sin, that causes more sorrow than all else. It is death, or the loss of loved ones.

   Whom does God chasten? Hebrews 12:6 it states, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scoureth every son whom he receiveth.” God tells us that this chastening is not a source of pleasure for him or us. In Hebrews 12:11 it states, “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: Nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them who are exercised thereby.”

Readers, there was one thing aside from sin, that causes more sorrow than all else. It is death, or the loss of loved ones. We who are Christians have the comfort of God’s Word can usually understand the meaning of death for we know that God is just in all that he does. However, the loss of loved ones God often uses as a means of conversion, and of breaking the ties which bind to the way of this world. Persecution, sickness, hearing, the loss of sight, or limb, the loss of property, or other calamities may likewise be just some of the instruments that God uses to draw us nearer to him.

God’s means of bringing us to him vary in many ways and some of these ways we may not understand immediately…

In Psalms 119:71, it said, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” Also it is stated in Isaiah 26:9, “With my soul have I desired in the night; yea with my spirit within me will I seek the early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” God’s means of bringing us to him vary in many ways and some of these ways we may not understand immediately; however through the Word of God which hopefully we are nearer to… the answers will manifest .

The Ministry of Sorrow is Part of the Walk with God

      For in our afflictions there is great benefit for us. In II Corinthians 4:17-18, it states, “For our light affliction, which but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen: for the things that are seen are temporal; but the things that are not seen are eternal.”  In addition readers, it becomes crystal clear we understand that what God wants for us and what he is doing with us is far, far greater than what we can ever do for ourselves.

God never chastises us or afflict us to leave us in despair.

     In conclusion no matter what we see, we must rest on the Word of God for our comfort in sorrow and affliction knowing that it is all for our good as stated in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to the who are the called according to his purpose.” Also in Hosea 6:1, we can find rest in this statement, “Come and let us return unto The Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us, He hath smitten, and He will bind us up.”

May God bless and heal us all in the Mighty Name of Jesus!