God Cares for You Emotionally
Pray – (1/2 minute)
Read - (2 1/2 minutes) - "You are the children of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead, for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be His treasured possession." (Deuteronomy 14:1-2)
Passage: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
In the movie, “A League of Their Own”, Tom Hanks played the manager of a women’s professional baseball team in the 1940’s. In one memorable scene, he yelled at a player who had made a poor decision in the field. When the player began to cry, the manager asked, “Are you crying? There’s no crying in baseball!” Life is not baseball and God wired us to cry. When Moses told the children of Israel not to cut themselves or shave their heads after someone died, he was not forbidding them to grieve. Those two things were rituals of the pagan people and were part of their religions trying to appease their gods.
God wired us for relationship, to love and be loved. When someone you love dies, grief is a gift God gave to help release the pain of the loss and remind you of the relationship. God cares about your hurts, but He wants you to grieve differently than the world. As a believer, you can grieve with hope. This grief includes crying. It includes confessing Jesus is Lord, knowing that death is not the end. It receives comfort in Christ and through the support of others. God cares for you emotionally. He understands every hurt. Grieve with hope. He will comfort you.
Apply - (2 1/2 minutes)
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Pray - (1 1/2 minutes)