True friends go through different experiences together. You could say that they “experience life” together in many ways. True friends laugh together and also cry together.
If you recently experienced the loss of a loved one, know that your true and closest friends are suffering with you. You are not alone. Your true friends want into your heart and be there with you while you go through the grief. So I urge you to reach out and share your suffering with your close friends and family—those you know that truly care for you. Just as your true friends want you to share your good news when you get a new job, get engaged, are expecting a baby, receive a promotion or anything else that is good in your life, they also want to be included in your life when something bad happens.
Today I want to encourage you to seek out God and remember that He will get you through your grief and distress. I would like to share a devotional from my book Devotions for Working Women that will encourage you to continue your race while you hang on to God and share your life with your true friends.
Dealing with Grief and Distress
# 94
Psalm 31:9 (NLT)
Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am in distress. My sight is blurred because of my tears. My body and soul are withering away.
During the course of our lives, we experience times of great distress and situations when we feel we are withering away from grief. Losing our job can create great pain for us because our work is a major part of our lives. Yet the loss of a loved one could be much more impacting in our working life. When we lose someone to death like a child, our spouse, a parent, or a close friend, it creates a wound in our heart that only God can heal. Divorce, separation, or a child leaving home prematurely can also be as catastrophic.
These events change our lives forever, and it is in those moments that grief can settle into our hearts. It is normal to go through a grieving period, but we cannot stay there too long because it is deadly for us just as David said in verse 10, “I am dying from grief; my years are shortened by sadness. Misery has drained my strength; I am wasting away from within.”
Even though we never forget tragic or sad events, we need to move on and let go of the grief and pain. We must continue the race God has set for each one of us and finish it. There are two things we need to do. First, just as David never gave up trusting God and kept running to Him for protection and comfort, we have to trust God that He will help us and lift us up. “So be strong and take courage, all you who put your hope in the Lord!” (v. 24). Secondly, we need to do what Paul did. He said to the people of Philippi, “No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven” (Philippians 3:13-14 NLT).