Our Hearts Will Warm Again

It is human nature to believe that whatever state our hearts are currently experiencing is permanent.

When we are content and our circumstances are easy, we feel things will always be that way, and this is the time we are most prone to forget the Lord. I've always thought we are safest spiritually when things are a little bit difficult, because it is when we are aware of our own weaknesses that we are more likely to depend on God's strength.

But there comes a time in most lives when our hearts are numbed by terrible grief. When a loved one dies, our lives are irreversibly changed, and sometimes the grief is so overwhelming that we are unable to pray. Sometimes, though, we suffer ahead of the final parting. Watching a loved one fade away due to dementia causes grief that is compounded by uncertainty; we don't know how or when it will end. 

I remember the Abraham Lincoln quote: 

Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You can not now realize that you will ever feel better. Is not this so? And yet it is a mistake. You are sure to be happy again. To know this, which is certainly true, will make you some less miserable now. 

The Lord expressed this thought a little differently, emphasizing that our only hope for today or tomorrow is in Him:  "You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy...Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy" (John 16:20, 22). Because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we don't have to suffer grief alone. He sent His Holy Spirit to us so that we will never be left without comfort.

Until grief eases and our promised joy arrives, we can rest in the certainty of our our Lord's abiding presence with us.