God Has Not Forgotten You In Your Time of Great Sorrow
When the aches of
our heart thrust us toward the only One who can bring true, lasting comfort,
then they serve a good purpose. Even if we can’t see anything good in the
tragic event that triggered our grief, turning to God means that we are headed
in the right direction. Pain has the potential to stimulate growth in our
relationship with God, since it often reawakens us to eternal realities. In
this way, God can use our sorrow to draw us closer to him. God has not
forgotten to be gracious. To the contrary, it is because of his grace that he
remembers you. He is nurturing your faith, so that it will not wither or get
stale. You are not forgotten!
by Paul Tautges
“Has God forgotten to be gracious?” - Psalm 77:9
The pain of loss
can lead you to feel alone, even forgotten.
The lack of answers
to your Why questions and the drying up of the stream of encouraging phone
calls, or mail can add to this solitary feeling.
There also may be a
lack of a sense of what our society calls closure; that is, the
acceptance of what has happened and the transition to something new.
In all of this, you
may wonder where God is.
Your heart may
speculate whether he, too, has forgotten you. But he has not!
“Has God forgotten to be gracious?” - Psalm 77:9
The healing that
you long to experience may not come right away. It rarely does. It will take
time. You need to accept that, and be patient.
By the time the
writer of Psalm 77 asks, “Has God
forgotten to be gracious?” he has already been earnestly crying out to him.
“I cry aloud to God,” he begins, “aloud to God, and he will hear me” (verse 1).
Limping alongside
his grief, intertwined with his pain, are cries of faith. “In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is
stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted” (verse 2).
Fueling his cries
of faith is the pain that will not go away, but lingers. It is not physical
pain, but the inner pain of sorrow and loss.
It is the hurt that
persists. But God does not find this man’s questions offensive. No, God
welcomes his lament.
“When I remember God, I moan, when I meditate, my spirit
faints. You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak” (verses 3–4).
He moans, yes. But
he moans in faith . . . to God.
His complaint does
not flow from unbelief, but is evidence of an active faith — faith that longs
for the completion of the incomplete, the resolution of the unresolved.
When the aches of
our heart thrust us toward the only One who can bring true, lasting comfort,
then they serve a good purpose.
Even if we can’t
see anything good in the tragic event that triggered our grief, turning to God
means that we are headed in the right direction.
Pain has the
potential to stimulate growth in our relationship with God, since it often
reawakens us to eternal realities.
In this way, God
can use our sorrow to draw us closer to him.
God has not
forgotten to be gracious. To the contrary, it is because of his grace that he
remembers you.
He is nurturing
your faith, so that it will not wither or get stale.
You are not
forgotten!
For further
meditation and comfort today, read all of Psalm 77.
*Excerpt from A Small Book for the Hurting Heart: Meditations on Loss, Grief, and Healing
By
God’s grace, I’m a husband, dad, grandpa, and a pastor at Cornerstone Community
Church in Mayfield Hts, OH. I love Christ because He first loved me.
https://counselingoneanother.com/2021/01/25/god-has-not-forgotten-you-in-your-time-of-great-sorrow/
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