Heavenly Father I praise You for giving us the Holy Spirit to speak to us, fill us, empower us, comfort us and to show us things through Your eyes. I praise You for the wisdom the Spirit gives us and the boldness in my faith.
Holy Spirit help me to listen to Christ’s words with my heart when he said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” [Matthew 5:4] I understand that this is a layered statement. On one level we all face times of mourning and You, the Holy Spirit, are there to comfort us, but the deeper meaning of this lesson from Christ is that I should be so inner twined with Christ’s desire for all to have salvation that I mourn those who fail to accept this gift and die with an eternity of emptiness and hell. I hurt at the very core of who I am when I can’t persuade someone to seek and accept Jesus. When my spirit becomes so tendered it aches at the loss of family members, friends, and acquaintances who could have known hope and salvation.
I also mourn for those who commit suicide. I am not the judge of where their soul goes, but I do mourn the fact that they lost all hope, felt isolated, was in so much pain that they decided living was no longer worth it. I mourn for the loss of all that they could have been and all the people they leave behind who do love them. I mourn for how lonely, depressed, possibly unstable, and at the end of what they felt they could endure without seeking help or compassion from God or us. I find a little solace in the realizations that unlike my human mind, God looks at the intent of the heart, knows the very thoughts of the individual and is a just God. In that I find comfort.
Holy Spirit help me to mourn without succumbing to a depression that would lead me to suicide. Help me to be comforted even though I know of more than one suicide that has affected my life deeply and even the accidental deaths of love ones that I have had to accept being removed from my life so early. I find comfort only in that I have a hope that I will reach an eternity in heaven and see many of these people who will be living in the eternal hope of Jesus. I realize I do not know everything and that I am no theologian, but I know the God I serve and His word does not lie. I am grateful He is the judge at the end of life and not one of us humans who have such a limited view on life.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. 1Peter 5:6-11