Blessed Sorrow

Scripture

Sorrow is better than laughter, for sadness has a refining influence on us.

~Ecclesiastes 7:3, NLT

Quote

Blessed is the darkness, for it reveals the stars.

~H.C. Trumbull

Jesus said, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” All the beatitudes are a paradox: blessed are the poor, gentle, sorrowful, hungry, etc. These are not the things we desire: I don’t want to be poor, sorrowful or hungry. Jesus used paradoxes because they force us to think. How in the world can a sorrowful man be blessed? It begins with you and I being sorrowful about our sins and what they did to Christ. I can promise you–you will never be blessed until you see and sorrow over your sinful state. But there is more: God uses sorrow to reveal the human soul. Sorrow will penetrate the very depths of your soul and reveal to you things you did not know. It is God’s way of revealing ourselves to ourselves.

But that is not all, sorrow is God’s breaking plow that rips us the hardness of our hearts. It makes our hearts fallow, broken, like ground ready to receive seed. Where grows the golden grain? In the furrow cut by pain! The modern adage is– “No pain, no gain.” God uses sorrow to enlarge the heart; to make us more sensitive to the pain and suffering in others. I can spot a broken hearted person but only because I have had my own heart broken. Unbroken success leads to pride and hardness of heart. Instead of being compassionate toward others, we become like the Pharisees who were hard, critical, judgmental and harsh.

I found this story in STREAMS. An old man had a humble cottage and a mill by a stream. He was literally grinding out a living using the water power and his mill: this was all he had. Then came the storm of his life time and the clouds burst with rain, much more than the stream could handle. The flood got his house and his mill. After the water subsided, he went to see the extent of the damage. Everything was gone, washed away; the only thing left was the foundation of the mill but as he surveyed the foundation stones, he saw something shiny that he had never seen before. Sure enough, as you suspected, it was gold and the old man became wealthy over night. His sorrow was turned to joy.

I do love that story. I love stories that have a happy ending. Just remember, THE MEEK WILL INHERIT THE EARTH. Do not concerned yourselves with worldly wealth; make Christ kingdom your priority and one day you will be wealthy beyond belief.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *