Give God Your Grief
Daily Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 60-63
Daily Focus Passage: Isaiah 61
The joy of walking with the Lord must outweigh the pleasures and pains of this world. The experience of grief is a reality that people face at various moments in life. Grief appears differently in each person’s life. Grief brings heartache, despair, and hurt. We often respond with various questions and emotions when sorrow or shock hits. For the followers of Christ, we must seek to give God the pain and struggle of our grief so that we may receive the joy that comes from him alone.
In Isaiah 61, the prophet emphasized how the coming Redeemer would bring genuine joy to those who experience grief. Jesus offers joy to the poor. The poor references those who experience oppression from those who hold more power and authority. The oppression occurs as people claim to pursue justice through the eyes of humanity and reject the ways of the Lord. Yet, the Lord promises joy despite the earthly condition to the poor because he gives hope and certainty that cannot be taken away.
The prophet declared that the Redeemer would bring joy to the broken. The idea of broken carries the picture of a shattered life. The shattered life may come through a broken marriage, a wayward child, or events that batter an individual. These events lead to a moment of hopelessness because life is a wound needing healing. Isaiah reveals that Jesus is the true healing that restores us to the Father.
Isaiah proclaimed that Jesus would bring joy to the captive. The captives lived under the restraint of an enemy that hindered them from moving freely—the captives lived under the rule of an outside force. When we consider captivity, we must investigate what holds us under its rule and recognize that the joy from freedom comes only from the Lord.
The prophet charged the prisoner to find joy in the Messiah. Unlike the captive, the prisoner lives under the rule of an outside force and experiences being bound. Sin treats us like a prisoner. It binds us and attempts to keep us from experiencing freedom. In Christ, genuine joy overcomes the chains of sin, and the chains become broken, and genuine joy becomes a reality.
The prophet foretold of joy coming to the mourner. Isaiah’s readers would have remembered and mourned the lost of loved ones lost in the time of captivity. The mourning overflowed from the grief over death and the emptiness of losing a loved one. Yet, the Lord’s promise to the mourner is comfort and joy. It is the promise of peace.
Jesus is the Messiah, Isaiah declared. He is the avenue to experiencing genuine joy. Christ alone offers the breaking of the chains of sin and the offering of victory and freedom. When you look at your life, what is driving you? Are you trusting in the Lord of joy or allowing this world to steal your joy?
