- Introduction
- Understanding Grief
- People Grieve Differently
- The Brain Fog of Grief
- The Vocabulary of Grief
- Grievers Don’t Need to be Fixed
- Misconceptions About Grief
- There Are No Orderly and Predictable Stages In Grief
- When Caring People Say Dumb Things When You’re Grieving
- What to Say to Others When You’re Grieving
- The Impact of Who you Lost and How you Lost Them
- Heavy Grief Days
- The Grief Letter
- Ways to Remember Them
- Permissions for Grievers
- Creating Bright Spots in the Midst of Grief
- Why Are Many Grievers Not Comfortable Crying In Front of Others?
- Why Grievers Don’t Need to Be Strong
- Do I Just Need Time to Heal From Grief?
- Why Do Grieving People Get the Message They Shouldn’t Be Sad?
- Is Staying Busy Good for Grief?
- The Isolation of Grief
- Can You Fill the Void Left by the Death of Loved One?
- How Long Does the Pain of Grief Last?
- How Do You Get Over Grief?
- I Don’t Want to Forget My Loved One Who Died
- Relationships Change After Loss
- Why Don’t Friends and Family Understand Your Grief?
- How to Tell Others What You Need in Your Grief
- Grief Can Cause You to Re-evaluate Relationships
- I Lost My Spouse and My Friends
- All the Phases in the Grief Journey
- I’m Grieving and Just Barely Surviving
- Why Do I Feel Like I Am Just Existing in My Grief?
- When Will I Be Ready for Grief Counseling?
- Can You Heal Your Grief?
- Living Again After Losing a Loved One
- How Grief Affects Mental Health
- Grief & Depression
- How Trauma Affects Your Grief
- Co-Dependency and Grief
- Should I take medication for my grief?
- The Uniqueness of Grieving A Suicide
- Suicide Shock: I Can’t Believe They Did It
- Feeling Blame and Shame After a Suicide
- The Abandonment of Suicide
- The Stigma of Suicide
- Interview with widow who lost two husbands by suicide
- Losing Your Husband to Suicide
- What To Do With Your Loved One’s Belongings After They Die
- No Cost Financial Coaching & Planning for Widows: Chris Bentley
- Hope When Shattered By Grief
- Answers to Your Questions About Grief
- Introduction
- Is Being Angry at God a Sin After My Loved One Died?
- Where Did My Peace, Joy and Gratitude Go after I lost my loved one?
- Can Grief and Hope Co-Exist?
- Why Does God Heal Some People But Not Others?
- Is Suicide an Unforgivable Sin?
- Why Do I Dislike Platitudes and Bible Verses?
- Why Did God Let My Loved One Die?
Questions Grieving Christians Ask
8 Episodes
All Series
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Foundations Of Grief
14 Episodes -
Misconceptions About Grief
12 Episodes -
Relationships After Loss
5 Episodes -
The Grief Journey
6 Episodes -
Grief & Mental Health
5 Episodes -
Grieving A Suicide
6 Episodes -
Conversations On Grief
4 Episodes -
Grief Talks
1 Episodes -
Questions Grieving Christians Ask
8 Episodes
Questions Grieving Christians Ask
8 Episodes
Episodes in This Series
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Introduction
-
Is Being Angry at God a Sin After My Loved One Died?
-
Where Did My Peace, Joy and Gratitude Go after I lost my loved one?
-
Can Grief and Hope Co-Exist?
-
Why Does God Heal Some People But Not Others?
-
Is Suicide an Unforgivable Sin?
-
Why Do I Dislike Platitudes and Bible Verses?
-
Why Did God Let My Loved One Die?
Episode 4 : Can Grief and Hope Co-Exist?
Can Grief and Hope Co-Exist?
Can grief and hope co-exist? They can exist together – and I’ll explain how. First, let’s define grief. Grief is your natural reaction to experiencing a difficult loss. In this case, I’m specifically addressing losing a loved one. Grief will affect you mentally, emotionally and physically. Heavy grief can, and probably will, impact every domain of your life. Losing a loved one brings up many difficult feelings, including deep sadness, emptiness, being stunned, shame, remorse, fear, anxiety, anger, confusion, and often a sense of hopelessness.
So, if your hope is simply a feeling, grief and hope are incompatible. After all, how can a person feel hopeful and hopeless simultaneously? But what if a hope exists that is something MORE than a feeling or a wish?
The Bible teaches us about such hope. The hope it offers is available to all who put their faith in Jesus. This hope is a promise, not a feeling. It provides a future that transcends feelings. Feelings are like bubbles – they pop up, and eventually, they float away, or poof, they’re gone..
But you can “possess” the gift of hope, which allows you an enduring and confident belief in a promised future. If you view hope as an eternal promise, you will begin to see grief not as the end of your life but as a cloud casting a shadow on your present life. Darkness may seem to block out light. But, while you are in that shadow, knowing you have a guaranteed future hope can remind you that (“Your cloud of grief will fade and will pass in time, as you come to terms with and process your loss.)
Where exactly does such hope come from? (Possessing an enduring hope is available to every person who puts their faith in Jesus Christ). If you are a Christian and thinking – “I think I’ve lost my hope.” I have good news for you. Christians can lose touch with their hope temporarily. But losing touch with your enduring hope is different from losing your hope. The Bible teaches that you won’t actually “lose” this hope because your hope in and through Jesus is permanent.
If you are a Christian and you’ve lost touch with your hope. Don’t be hard on yourself. Instead, just reach out to God in prayer and remind yourself through scripture about the authentic hope he’s given you.
Life here on Earth is not always easy, nor is it painless. Knowing that something more, better and enduring awaits you after this life can help get you through your most difficult times. Right now, you are deep in a season of loss, grieving the loss of someone you deeply love. But your future remains intact because God is not a passing season. He is the beginning and the end and he does not break promises.
Remember you can download and print out the Episode Notes including its key points along with several scriptural references that speak to the points made in this episode.