How mourning really works and why it matters

April 24, 2014

Matthew 5:4

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 

CONSIDER THIS. . .

One doesn’t read Jesus long until they realize he is writing from a very focused and even fierce point of view. He focuses with laser-like precision on how the Love of God works on and in a human person until that person has herself become the Love of God. We like John Wesley because he emulates this focus.

Far from a soft sentimental sense of “the Love of God,” Wesley sees this Love as the relentless pursuit of holiness, effected not by human will but by the unrelenting power of the Holy Spirit. Poverty of the human spirit is so essential because it paves the way for the power of the Holy Spirit. The difficult challenge of this growth process necessarily produces mourning. The pride of the fallen human spirit dies a thousand deaths.  He captures it brilliantly here:

The more we grow in grace, the more do we see of the desperate wickedness of our heart. The more we advance in the knowledge and love of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ (as great a mystery as this may appear to those who know not the power of God unto salvation), the more do we discern of our alienation from God, of the enmity that is in our carnal mind, and the necessity of our being entirely renewed in righteousness and true holiness.p.17

Read that again. The closer we grow to God, the further we realize we are from Him and yet the closer we long to be. This way of Holy Love is akin to nuptial love, an ever deepening satisfaction filled with a never ending yearning for more and yet a daily challenge that will literally beat the hell out of you.

And if you need a short course in mourning, you might read through the Lenten entries in the Daily Text many of which dealt with lament.

Get your copy of Wesley’s Sermons on the Sermon on the Mount HERE. Use the code DAILYTEXT for a 25% discount. 

J.D. Walt writes daily for Seedbed’s Daily Text. He serves as Seedbed’s Sower in Chief. Follow him @jdwalt on Twitter or email him at jd.walt@seedbed.com.

Get the Daily Text delivered to your inbox fresh every morning. Subscribe HERE