Missed Question From 1.2.22 Q&R

There was a question that was texted in on Sunday that didn’t come in until after Q&R was over that I wanted to briefly respond to:

When grief takes away purpose and all you can hear is the clock ticking, how does God tell us to jump start His worship over putting heart break first? [Does] our hard work equate to fixing our heart's position so when 'life happens' we can still hear and care about seeking?

This is a difficult question to respond to because there are a lot of specifics to this person's situation that I don't know. If this is your question, please make sure that there are fellow Christians in your life that you can trust to help you process your grief. If there aren’t please reach out. Someone from the church church would love to talk with you.

As far as some general thoughts about grief, Psalm 42 is helpful.

The psalmist seems to be feeling two sets of competing emotions: depression and a lack of hope in God (V3, 5-6), as well as fond memories and a yearning for the experience of God’s presence that he had in the past (V1-2,4).

Something terrible has happened and for whatever reason the joyful practice of worship is something that the psalmist can’t either physically or emotionally participate in.

In verse 7 the psalmist begins to describe this sensation of drowning in the deep - but he ascribes all of the waters to God. God hasn’t caused the turmoil (that was enemies V3,10 and the psalmist himself V5,11) but his presence everywhere, both in the day and the night, means that in the midst of the psalmist’s drowning, God is with him.

There are 2 things that the psalmist does in the midst of this grief. First he confesses his situation to God. For the psalmist it looks like the contradictions in his soul might be a lack of trust - a sin of faithlessness. That might not be you. There might not be sin in your situation. But the psalmist still, out loud, confesses his heart to God. Secondly, twice in this psalm, he speaks to himself (V5, 11) to remind himself that regardless of his circumstances he can still trust, still hope and still praise God.

The reality of suffering, whether through our sinful foolishness or by tragedy that befalls us through no fault of our own, is that it is guaranteed to happen. It’s not an unanticipated detour from the purposes of God for our lives, it is part of the purpose for our lives. The grief that you are experiencing is not something that has to take away your purpose and prevent you from worshipping God - but if that’s what’s happening, get real honest with God about what’s going on inside you and begin to ask him to show you ways to worship in the midst of your grief instead of planning on seeking him after you have been delivered from it.

Jesus is faithful. He will never leave you. He is seeking you through the pain, not in spite of it. He deserves your worship in the midst of your grief and your soul needs to worship him in order to get you through it.

I hope some of that was helpful. There is obviously a lot more that could and should be said about your specific situation, which I can’t comment on here. Like I mentioned above, please don’t walk through this alone. You are loved by God and loved by the community of Revelation Church. Please seek out brothers and sisters to walk with if you don’t have them already.