Grief is characterized by symptoms such as low spirits, feelings of unhappiness, discouragement, anger, brooding despondency, depression, and intense emotional anguish. Grief affects us in many different ways:

Physically: My heart is blighted and withered like grass; I forget to eat my food. Because of my loud groaning I am reduced to skin and bones.
Psalm 102:4-5 NIV

Mentally: “I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.” Job 3:26

Emotionally: Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long? Lamentations 5:20 NIV
Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy? Job 13:24 NIV

Spiritually: My soul is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long? Psalm 6:3 NIV

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent. Psalm 22:1-2 NIV

Mourning is the expression of grief. It is the process in which we try to make sense of our pain and suffering and reconcile our past experiences, knowledge, faith and beliefs with what we’re experiencing. It is looking for hope where there doesn’t appear to be any.

It is the struggle to regain a sense of well-being after having our world, our lives, our minds and hearts turned upside down and inside out.

I believe that if we can reconcile our experiences of pain and sorrow, grief and mourning with our Creator and Savior’s loving nature and purposes for our lives, that will bring healing and restoration to our whole person-body, soul and mind.

Why do we experience suffering and loss and death and all kinds of other hurtful things that cause us to grieve?

The most basic explanation is that God never intended for us to experience suffering or death. That may be why we react to them the way we do.

Disobedience and nonconformity to God’s perfect standards introduced these painful things into the perfect world God made and the blessed lives He envisioned for us.

GOD said to the Woman, “What is this that you’ve done?”

“The serpent seduced me,” she said, “and I ate.”

GOD told the serpent: “Because you’ve done this, you’re cursed, cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals, Cursed to slink on your belly and eat dirt all your life. I’m declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He’ll wound your head, you’ll wound his heel.”

He told the Woman: “I’ll multiply your pains in childbirth; you’ll give birth to your babies in pain. You’ll want to please your husband, but he’ll lord it over you.”

He told the Man: “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree That I commanded you not to eat from, ‘Don’t eat from this tree,’ The very ground is cursed because of you; getting food from the ground Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife; you’ll be working in pain all your life long. The ground will sprout thorns and weeds, you’ll get your food the hard way, Planting and tilling and harvesting, sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk, Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried; you started out as dirt, you’ll end up dirt.” Genesis 3:13-19 MSG

How do we cope with events and experiences that bring on the unpleasant, painful, sometimes debilitating emotions of grief?

We begin by simply trusting God’s good name and holy character, that His intentions for us are always good.

The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. Psalm 145:9 NIV

Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion according to the greatness of his unfailing love. For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow. Lamentations 3:32-33 NLT

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Genesis 50:20 NIV

We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him. They are ones God has chosen for his purpose, Romans 8:28 CEV

Then we cling to God’s promise that one day He will release us from pain and suffering when He restores us and the rest of His creation to His original design and purpose.

Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God’s curse. All creation anticipates the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us. Romans 8:20-23 NLT

Remember your promise to me, for it is my only hope. Your promise revives me; it comforts me in all my troubles. Psalm 119:49-50 NLT

About the Author
Sharon Young is a dedicated mom and wife with a deep desire to discover who God is and how to navigate this life guided by His truth.Mourning Glory – A Devotional for Grieving is a book for those struggling through a loss and looking for support and comfort, http://www.amourningdevotional.com

Article source:
Why Do We Experience Grief

While people argue as to whether these stages are really true for a person in grief, and while the whole issue of loss is quite complex, for myself I have found that I have indeed gone through the stages of grief and often more than once for the same loss. In some cases I don’t know that I have ever come to a complete reconciliation of the loss. I don’t mean that I have carried grief to the extent I could be described as clinically depressed or mentally ill, but definitely I still miss the person, place or thing with an intense sense of loss.

I have found it helpful to look at the five stages with every kind of loss to understand how I am dealing with the misfortune. There are so many types of loss as we deal with grief in the devotional. Everyday events such as moving, weddings, change in jobs, loss of a pet, graduations, broken dreams, broken homes, bankruptcy, loss of youth divorce…all cause grief. Tragedies like critical illness, accident, natural disasters, handicaps and acts of terrorism expose us to overwhelming grief. The process of grieving has many faces.

Recently, one of our married male friends died. My husband and I were very close to them as a couple. We traveled with them, always spent New Year’s Eve going to a dinner theater. We enjoyed many activities together. They were our best friends. I went to see him at home where hospice was taking care of him. He was very sick, thin and pale. I think the stages of grief began for me then.

DENIAL, As a Christian, although I didn’t say it in the latter days, I was still hoping and praying that he would be healed. I do believe in healing, but I also know that, for each of us, there is an appointed hour to die. It was indeed selfish. We so enjoyed ourselves with them, I simply couldn’t imagine life without him. I could not admit to myself that this was his appointed hour. At the last, when I saw him a few days before his death I could see he was terminally ill. It was a rude awakening. It was like being hit with a tree limb. Oh, ok, he is not going to be healed. In some ways denial had been a protection, a hope, vain as it turned out, but a hope that everything would be alright.

ANGER, I used to argue about this stage of grief. But there is always some anger when you lose someone you love. I found myself saying, “Lord, why did you have to take him? Here is a man who contributed so much to life, to other people, to me. How could you do this to me, Lord?

BARGAINING, Now here comes the bargaining. I’ve got a good idea, Lord. Why don’t you take some of the terrorists and leave my friend? How about Bin Laden or al Zakowi for starters? I can give them up real easily. How about taking someone older? I can think of few I could offer who really are no longer on their mental game. My friend’s time was so short here on earth, and he’s sharp as a tack. What will his precious wife do without him? Take someone who doesn’t have a spouse or much family. It doesn’t seem fair, Lord. Then you realize life and especially death aren’t fair. Many die untimely deaths, and many great people die young or relatively young, and many cads and neer do wells live to be old. Does it help to realize this about loss, deprivation and death? Sometimes I struggle with the mysteries of loss here, but now we do see through a glass darkly.

DEPRESSION, Ok, nothing works here. I’m powerless. I’ll never see him again. I think I’ll watch TV 24 hours a day. Life can be too painful. It may never get better. I always throw in a bit of, “How can you do this to me, Lord?” Notice here I have given very little thought to what his wife, my dearest friend, is going through. Ah, she’s doing ok. She has wonderful kids to comfort her. My husband and I just have each other here. I know there’s something wrong and depressing with my logic, but I’m grieving.

ACCEPTANCE, One day I talked with my husband and realized we both were thinking of our friend, the wife, as dead too. My husband said, “You know we can still ask Barb to come with us. Maybe she won’t or can’t yet, but there’s no reason why we shouldn’t ask.” It went through my mind, “Phil is gone. He’s really gone. But we have to go on without him, still try to enjoy life and celebrate, just as he did.” Then I remembered how much he really loved life and enjoyed almost every minute. What an inspiration! It made me realize too that it is alright to remember, especially when you have so many good times to remember; it is alright to toast to the good times; it is alright to know that he was at peace with his death and his God; it is alright to accept that some part of every good friend remains in me as a Godly gift and attribute; and finally, it is alright to miss him, sometimes very much because, you know what, his death is a very great loss. But how much better his very much grieved death, than that he should leave this earth and no one give a darn.

About the Author
Diana Burg is an author with several books. She writes novels, short stories, plays, screenplays and poetry. Her passion is writing.Mourning Glory – A Devotional for Grieving is a book for those struggling through a loss and looking for support and comfort. http://www.amourningdevotional.com

Article source:
The Stages of Grief