Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Matthew 5:4)
God promises to comfort those who mourn, no matter what we are mourning. Maybe you mourn for a friend far from God, or maybe your mourn because of sin in your heart. Maybe you mourn because you feel the weight of someone else's pain and suffering. Take this week to think how God has shown comfort to you or someone you know.
Again, pick one and leave a comment about the experience.
1) Watch the video "99 balloons" on youtube.com. Consider how a child's short 99 days of life drew a community together in mourning. Think about how the kingdom of God came to the parents, friends, and family. Share the burden of mourning by getting helium-filled balloon and letting it go for those who are mourning. If you are mourning, let it go as a symbol of the promise that God will comfort you.
2) Go to tinyurl.com/cxljo8. View the University of Heidelberg's Global Conflict Panorama. Choose one of those areas to learn more about. Pray for those who are mourning in that situation.
3) Provide comfort to those who serve in the armed forces by sending a letter, package, or card.
Go to: any soldier.com/wheretosend and follow the instructions under "what to send" and "how to send".
4) Attend a hospital visitation with your pastor or youth pastor.
5) Handwrite a letter to someone in your life who is struggling with a hopeless or depressing situation. Text them a prayer or give them a phone call this week. Listen to their story and do your best to comfort them. Try to keep in mind that God will be doing a lot of comforting through you; it's by Christ that you can do all things.
6) Ask three people what sins they think are most prevalent in our nation's population. Then spend your quiet time this week allowing God to break your heart for those sins.
3 comments:
I wrote a letter to a person in a pretty hopeless situation. I found myself struggling with what worldly chat I could fill the letter with thinking that would help to take his mind away from his situation. I realize the chat was just idle and not really comforting. I just wrote about how love he was. I cannot get a response to my letters, but I pray that God's promise about His word not being sown without a harvest will stand true for the words of love that I sent in the letter. Writing the letter made me realize how empty words of comfort are without the presence of the Lord being felt in the place where they are spoken. G
This week's experiment was hard because I knew it would require me to go to a dark place with somebody in order share their burdens. Julie and I committed to providing a meal for somebody each week - a practice that we fell out of since moving to Conway. I extended a couple of offers and had no takers last week but was able to make plans for the future. In spite of my failure God sent someone to me saturday afternoon. While working in the garage an 89 year old neighbor stopped by and introduced himself. We immediately hit it off. He shared that his wife passed away two years ago and he shared about his depression afterwards. I invited him to go to a singing at church and though he couldn't make it, he did bring some music by for me to listen to. I thank God for my new friend Corky Corcoran.
This was a hard week for me-brought back some feelings that were hard for me...I did #5. It just presented itself to me (or another God thing). A friend of mine is really struggling. She actually did CPR on a friend of hers who had cancer. He passed away. I told her one day that it looked like she had lost a lot of weight. She said she feels almost guilty eating. She shared her story of how hard she tried to save her friend, yet he still passed. We talked about God's plans for our lives, and grieving. This was hard...very hard...
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