Forest Glen Bible Camp Nova Scotia, Canada

Happy Are Those Who Cry

(Matthew 5:4-"Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted")

This verse appears to be very strange. People who are sad are happy? There are many times we can't explain our suffering, but we know that God does comfort us, so that in the midst of, or even after, our suffering we can comfort others also. (2Cor.1:4) During our trials, we discover that God is faithful. This truth must find a resting place in the depths of our heart as we face our sorrows. Job, a godly man, suffered. He cried and then he worshiped! The difference between the world and the person who is genuinely saved is that the world weeps and gets mad at God - the believer weeps and then praises God for who He is and draws upon His ever sufficient grace. We don't rejoice "because" of our sufferings, but "in" our sufferings. (Rom.5:3) David in Psalm 34 shares with us that the Lord draws near to those who are brokenhearted. He testifies that he was delivered from his fears, after he "sought the Lord." Someone has said, "you never know if Jesus is all you need, until Jesus is all you have." Our inner pain causes us to cry out to the God of heaven who cares for us, even when He does not reveal why we are suffering.

Pastor Arthur J. Gossip was a Scottish preacher whose wife died in 1927 at age 54. He did not know how he would make it without her. He preached a powerful sermon to his congregation, entitled, "When life tumbles in, what then?" Out of his own sorrow and God-given comfort, he comforted others that day. When he came to the end of his sermon, he said, "I don't think you need to be afraid of life. Our hearts are very frail; and there are places where the road is very steep and very lonely. But we have a wonderful God."

Psalm 42:8 - "the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night HIS SONG shall be with me, and MY PRAYER unto the God of my life."