In Our Loss We Find God

Cemetery Memorial

Loss. Grief. A broken heart.

I am willing to guess that at least one of those brings a personal experience to your mind. We’ve all suffered a loss of some kind in our lives. Whether it’s a death of a loved one or the loss of a job or other opportunity, we all have experienced that feeling of loss. That sadness that comes with the end of something or someone that was important to us.

God tells us that loss and grief in this life are inevitable. He also promises us that when we come face to face with a personal loss, He will not expect us to handle it alone. He promises that he will restore what we have lost. Not that He will replace it with something similar, but that He will restore our joy and our peace. That we can find purpose in our lives after the loss and that He will make every experience count for our good.

Lamentations  3 contains 66 verses where Jeremiah begins by detailing just how bad life has gotten and how bitter it has made him. Then he changes his attitude and chooses to see how God has been faithful. Finally he points out that things haven’t changed in the natural but he has changed his view of all of it so God is able to restore Jeremiah’s peace in the midst of his grief.

Here is what Jeremiah says about God in the middle of Lamentations 3.

Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.

Surely my soul remembers
And is bowed down within me.

This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.

The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.

“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I have hope in Him.”

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
To the person who seeks Him.

It is good that he waits silently
For the salvation of the LORD.

It is good for a man that he should bear
The yoke in his youth.

Let him sit alone and be silent
Since He has laid it on him.

Let him put his mouth in the dust,
Perhaps there is hope.

Let him give his cheek to the smiter,
Let him be filled with reproach.

For the Lord will not reject forever,

For if He causes grief,
Then He will have compassion
According to His abundant lovingkindness.

For He does not afflict willingly
Or grieve the sons of men.

Allow God to meet you in the midst of your loss and He will be faithful to lift you up. No sadness is too great or too small for God to restore your joy.