His Encouragement #86

Good morning, and welcome to His Encouragement Thursday! I don’t know about you, but Thursdays are my struggle day of the week. By Thursday, I have already been working hard at school and at home, and I just wish it would hurry up and be Friday already. LOL! I definitely need a little extra Jesus time on Thursdays.

Trisha, my blogger friend at Joy of Reading, and I decided on calling this post “His Encouragement” because our real source of peace, strength, and security can only come from Jesus Christ. He and He alone is our constant! We pray and hope that these Thursday posts become a real encouragement to you and help you end your week strong in God’s love and purpose for you. God bless!

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Today’s Thursday Encouragement comes from:

Psalm 48:14 (NASB)

For such is God, our God forever and ever; He will guide us until death.

Last week Thursday my entire family, and then some, descended on my mom’s house for our annual Shepard family reunion. My mom, all of my brothers and their families, my sister and her family, my husband, myself, and my daughter, two of my aunts and their families, my grandmother, my uncle Steve and cousin Nikki and her family, and a lot of firemen came to eat, laugh, and tell stories. This year’s family reunion was bittersweet and many of us were struggling hard because this year, my dad was not there.

It’s been six months since my dad died, but it feels like it was just yesterday. Going to the family reunion was fun, but it was hard too. We told great stories and laughed, but then we would find ourselves scattering so we could have a good cry. To say our emotions were all over the place would be an understatement.

It is my normal habit to daily read God’s Word and spend a few minutes in prayer with Him. But, if I’m honest, I haven’t been comforted. The other day, I read the Beatitudes and Matthew 5:4 struck me — Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. I actually got a little angry. Not with God per se, but with the whole concept of the verse. What does it mean? How can I or my mom or my brothers and sister or our children possibly be comforted in this intense time of mourning? I got angry at the fact that I’ve been reading my Bible, I’ve been praying and praising God, I’ve been doing what I’m supposed to do, but yet I feel like my heart has been ripped from my chest. I’ve personally seen my mother reading her Bible and devotionals. We’ve talked about our relationships with God and have both expressed how important it is to stay close to God in good times and bad. But I’m left wondering where God’s comfort is. If you could have seen how deeply my mom hurts right now, if you could have seen me and my sister in tears, if you could have witnessed the struggle it was for my uncle Steve to speak at times, you would have clearly seen that we are not comforted.

My mom, however, had the answer. We pray. One of the firefighters that came to celebrate with us is a man named Dan. Dan is a fire captain for the LA Country Fire Department. He worked with my dad for many years. In addition to being a captain, Dan is also a chaplain. In fact, he is the man who guided my family through the initial days after my dad died and helped put together the funeral. When Dan showed up to the party, my mom took him aside and explained that we were all struggling harder than she anticipated and we needed prayer. So we gathered in a BIG circle and Dan lead us in prayer.

Psalm 48:14 tells us that God is forever and ever and that He will guide us forever even unto our deaths. God was there that day in that prayer circle. He had His hand on each of us. He saw our pain. He saw our tears. Through my mom’s prayer request, He guided my family to a small moment of comfort and peace. I realize as I sit here typing this post that that is how God’s comfort happens — in small doses here and there, through moments of prayer and study, through hugs and talks. God is here every day to guide us, and in that is the comfort He promises in Matthew 5:4. God is an awesome Father.

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NOW, IT’S YOUR TURN!

WHAT BIBLICAL VERSE IS ENCOURAGING YOU TODAY?

Check out more Thursday Encouragement from my fellow blogger friends:

Trisha @ Joy of Reading

Jacquelyn @ A Heavenly Home

Jessica @ A Baker’s Perspective

Becca @ The Becca Files

Gina @ Stories by Gina

Rebecca @ Rev. Rebecca Writes