Bless Are Those Who Mourn

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He designed the cure for our hurt – first to mourn, then to receive comfort from himself. Christ encourages us to mourn our hurt. Only then are we ready to be comforted.

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Most of us think of mourning as something we do when someone close to us dies. We mourn because our loved one has been removed from our lives, leaving us with a deep sense of pain and loss. No longer will we expereince that person’s presence, touch, warmth, reassurance, and love.

But what many of us fail to realize is that we need to mourn the losses from any significant relationship. Jimmy and Marla Carlton discovered that truth. Jimmy needed to mourn the fact that he had never felt loved and accepted by his rigid, domineering father. Marla needed to mourn her lack of atention and support from her uninvolved parents. Until Jimmy and Marla confronted those deeply entrenched childhood hurts, they were not free to genuinely love each other.

Because we are all imperfect people born into an imperfect world and grow up in an imperfect environment, we often carry around private bundles of hurts and unmet needs. Every bundle is different. Only you know the hurts you carry from past or ongoing relationships.

Centuries ago, Jesus Christ addressed this issue. What did he say it took to discover happiness?

He understood our dilemma. It doesn’t make sense to feel good about mourning. But, the secret is that he created us all to be relational. He knew there would be times when our needs would be unmet and we’d end up deeply hurt.

Take time to turn to Christ; turn to him in prayer. It’s the only way to be fully free from the hurts of your past and the only way to walk in the fullness of your marriage.

Scripture Journaling–Psalm 28:6-9

⁶ Praise be to the Lord,
for he has heard my cry for mercy.
⁷ The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
and with my song I praise him.

⁸ The Lord is the strength of his people,
a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
⁹ Save your people and bless your inheritance;
be their shepherd and carry them forever.

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Often we enter marriage hoping our spouse will make up for some of what we missed as children. Great hurt can take place in a marriage when these eneds from our childhood go unmet within our marriage as well.

In this psalm, David helps us to see the importance and the result of expressing our needs to the Lord (verses 6-7). Can you see his thinking? What is he feeling? What does he decide to do? After he expresses his gratefulness to the Lord, David is able to look to others’ needs (verses 8-9)

What a transformation!