The only way to cope with grief and handle the death of a loved one
Apologist John Piper was 28 years old when he lost his mom in an accident bus. He was told of the tragedy over the phone, and he went into his room and wept for two hours. Piper’s mom was his closest friend, next to his wife.
In the midst of coping with senseless death, John found himself thanking God for having a good and caring mother for 28 years.
Like the apostles, difficulties, threats, and death surrounded them; Paul overcame depression by being thankful, which is the first step to coping with loss.
→ How a mother coped with death of all her three children.
Attitude of thankfulness over grief
- Our parents, children, or close friends are gifts from God; we can only be thankful for the long or short time we had with them.
- Instead of thinking about the loss, let us be thankful for the wonderful memories we had.
- By saying “thank you, God,” we are acknowledging His sovereignty in both the lives of the dearly departed as well as ours.
- Thankfulness is humility before God, which means we trust his will, not ours.
- To be thankful for who or what we had is to appreciate the ones we lost.
Death is the beginning of immortality: Our troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes on what is unseen, which is the eternal life with Christ Jesus — 2 Corinthians 4:18.
John 11:25-26
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
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