Moving from Grief to Acceptance

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted.
–Psalm 34:18

On February 12, 1884, Theodore Roosevelt became a father. Two days later, on Valentine’s Day, Roosevelt said goodbye to his mother on her deathbed and then held his wife as she, too, lay dying. The two women passed away within hours of each other. In his diary that day, Roosevelt scrawled a large X and wrote, “The light has gone out of my life.”

Perhaps you can identify with those words because of a loss you’ve suffered. It feels like you’re in a dark tunnel. At some point in our lives, all of us will travel through the dark tunnel of grief. In our culture, we have a tendency to congratulate people for their composure after losing a loved one. We say, “You’re holding up so well,” as if they’re showing a great surge of faith. But grieving doesn’t betray a lack of faith; grieving is a natural response to loss. No matter how much faith you have, being separated from your loved ones is painful.

Jesus, the perfect Son of God, experienced grief. During Holy Week, we studied the story of Lazarus in John 11. When Lazarus died, his friends and family experienced real grief over the loss of their loved one. Even Jesus, who knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, wept before His friend’s tomb.

If your heart is broken right now because of a loss you’ve suffered, Jesus understands. Hebrews 4:15 says, “We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.” Jesus, our great High Priest, understands our grief. That’s why the writer of Hebrews continued, “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (v. 16). Grieving is a natural process that we all have to walk through–but we can take comfort in the fact that our Savior is with us every step of the way.

How do we keep our grief from overshadowing every other aspect of our lives? This week, we’re going to learn how to conquer the mountain of grief in our own lives as well as support others who are grieving.

Today’s devotion is adapted from “Moving from Grief to Acceptance,” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2021.

Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1979), 240–41.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.