Words of Comfort and hope in a time of Bereavement

 
Trying to come to terms with the loss of a loved one is surely the most painful of life’s experiences. Regardless of what sorrow and heartache you feel God knows and understands our grief, He wants to embrace us with His love and comfort our broken hearts. As we read through these passages God’s hand is stretched out to reassure us as he says; “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid”  John 14:27. Your preferred quotation can be engraved to a headstone or memorial plaque along with your own personalization if required. 
Words of Comfort following a bereavement
 
A Higher Purpose

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolation ecause we live in a fallen world, life inevitably includes sorrow. When sin entered the human race, it brought death, physical death and spiritual death with all the accompanying ramifications. Death or loss of anything we value causes grief. However, God has a higher purpose for His people, and He is faithful to use our most painful times to mature us, to draw us into closer dependence on Him.

Vicki Kraft Facing your feelings
 
 
The Secret

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationesus was a strong man in a new way. He was at once very weak & very strong. He was not ashamed to shed tears over Jerusalem, whom He wanted to gather like a hen her chicks; He was not afraid to weep publicly at the raising of Lazarus; and He was not afraid to show His agony in Gethsemane. All this did not make for a”strong” man in the worldly sense. Yet Jesus’ love was so strong that He was able to suffer the most terrible pain and godforsakenness and in His strength He completed the task given Him by his Father. In True weakness we become powerless and in true powerlessness we find strength. That is the secret.

J. Heinrich Arnold Discipleship
 
 
Easter Message 2008
Pope Benedict XVI Easter Message 2008n his farewell discourse, Jesus announced his imminent death and resurrection to his disciples with these mysterious words: “I go away, and I will come to you”. Dying is a “going away”. In the case of our own death, the “going away is definitive, there is no return. For Jesus, on the other hand, his going ushers in a completely new and greater way of being present. By dying he enters into the love of the Father. His dying is an act of love. Love however is immortal. Therefore, His going away is transformed into a new coming, in- to a form of presence which reaches deeper and does not come to an end. Pope Benedict XVI Easter Vigil Homily 2008
 
 
God Handles Our Frustration
The Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces… Isaiah 25:8 (NKJV)

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationhough we know God is not to blame for any death, so many times it seems that He turns a blind eye by allowing His permissive will to occur. He stands dead-center when we are looking for a target. I’m convinced that God loves us so much that He is willing to take the blame, to absorb our anger when we need a punching bag. I think He’d rather us yelling at Him than not speaking at all.

Leslie Williams Night Wrestling
 
 
God Listens

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationou can talk to God because God listens. Your voice matters in Heaven. He takes you very seriously. When you enter His presence, the attendants turn to you to hear your voice. No need to fear that you will be ignored. Even if you stammer or stumble, even if what you have to say impresses no one, It impresses God and He listens… Intently. Carefully. Prayers are honored as precious jewels. Purified and empowered, the words rise in a delightful fragrance to Our Lord. Your words don’t stop until they reach the very throne of God.

Max Lucado The Great House of God
 
 
Learning Through Trials

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationffliction can be a means of refining and of purification. Many a life has come forth from the furnace of affliction more beautiful and more useful. We might never have had the songs of Fanny Crosby had she not been afflicted with blindness..The “Hallelujah Chorus” was written by Handel when he was poverty stricken and suffering from a paralyzed right side and right arm. David said, “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now I have kept Thy word” (Psalm 119:67 KJV). We learn through the trials we are called upon to bear.

Billy Graham Unto the Hills
 
 
He Never Leaves Us

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationear Risen Lord, How hard it is to see clearly when devastating circumstances fill my eyes with tears. How blurry everything gets. Even You get blurry, and the sound of Your voice becomes strangely unfamiliar. Help me to blink away those tears to see that You are standing beside me, wanting to know why I am crying… wanting to know where it hurts.. wanting to wipe away every tear from my eyes. Thank you, Jesus, for being there, for never leaving me or forsaking me, even in the darkest and chilliest hours of my life.

Ken Gire Intimate Moments with the Saviour
 
 
Grieving Is A ProcessWeeping may last the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning Psalm 30:5 (NASB)

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationrieving is a process, not an address. Because we have experienced loss doesn’t mean we should set up house with it. When we’re willing to let the Lord do some internal surgery and then work through the recovery time, we will eventually enter the lighter & brighter season of spring.

Patsy Clairmont
Under his wings
 
 
These Small Candles

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationhere is not enough darkness in all the world  to put out the light of one small candle….
This inscription was found on a small, new gravestone after a devastating air raid on Britain in World War II. Some thought it must be a famous quotation, but it wasn’t. The words were written by a lonely old Lady whose pet had been killed by a Nazi bomb. I have always remembered those words, not so much for their poetry & imagery as for the truth they contain. In moments of discouragement, defeat or even despair, there are always certain things to cling to.Little things, usually: remembered laughter, the face of a sleeping child, a tree in the wind or a memory of something deeply felt or dearly loved. No man is so poor as not to have many of these small candles. When they are lit darkness goes away…and a touch of wonder remains.

Arthur Gordon A Touch of Wonder
 
 
Dealing With Regrets

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationomeone once said that the greatest part of grief is regret. Regret includes sorrow and remorse, & has to do with unfinished business this side of the grave. Since those of us still living on earth cannot experience Paradise except in brief glints, part of our task after someone we love dies is to clean up the regrets. Because regret is a many-pronged thing (remorse over something we did or didn’t do, sorrow that time with your loved one was cut short, regret that the dying one suffered) the main component of regret, as well as the ticket for working through it is forgiveness. For us who are left behind, we must forgive others for the circumstances of the death, forgive the loved one for leaving us, & forgive ourselves for an imperfect relationship with the one who has died.

Leslie Williams Night Wrestling
 
 
Time To WeepBurried under the biggest burden is a good place to find an even bigger blessing... (Janette Oke)

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationf you are experiencing grief for any reason, allow yourself time to mourn and weep. If you try to hold in your tears and ignore your pain, there may be serious problems later. God gave us tears to shed in grief, an outpouring of our inner pain. When were hurting there are two extremes to avoid. One extreme is to block our emotions, determined that we never care so much that we can be hurt that way again. It is unhealthy to block our emotions to protect ourselves…The other extreme is to become so consumed by grief that nothing else matters. The best thing to do is to get back into the normal process of life again.

Vicki Kraft Facing your feelings
 
 
God Loves You

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationod has been intimately acquainted with each human soul since the beginning of time. He looks upon the world and sees billions of individuals, one at a time. Each heart, each mind, each soul. He knows them personally. Intimately. Because He fashioned each one individually.So when your heart is full of joy, bursting with pleasure over an accomplishment or a deepened relationship or a conquered hurt, He feels it too. And when your heart hurts because someone has wounded it or you’ve disappointed yourself by he way you acted, He feels it, too.Out of the billions of other souls in the world, God sees you. He knows you. He loves you. And He’s willing and able to help you.

Peter Wallace What the Psalmist Is Saying To You Today
 
 
Trust And BelieveSave me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck Psalm 69:1

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationhy is it so so hard to believe Christ and trust him completely? Christ wants to give us His life and spirit and if we look to Him for only a moment, our hearts will tell us: Here is One we can trust. Yet each of us knows feelings of fear and anxiety. Something in us seeks Christ, and at the same time something in us wants to serve self and is unwilling to surrender to Him completely. But that is what we must do, for the Gospel says “trust and believe.”

J. Heinrich Arnold Discipleship
 
 
In The Midst Of Our Pain

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationometimes the materials God provides are things of beauty,… and sometimes they are things which break our hearts, not gifts in the same sense that Almighty God decrees the evil and suffering of the world (we only know that He allowed it, we don’t know why), but gifts in that He gives to us Himself, His presence, His never failing love in the midst of our pain. We may offer up those very pains, those inexplicable catastrophes that battle us to silence. We may even give Him our broken hearts, for the sacrifices of God, we are told, are “a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart.” All of it, the gladness and the sorrow, material for sacrifice, given “day by day without fail.” For one who has made thanksgiving the habit of his life, the morning prayer will be: “Lord, what will you give me today to offer back to You?”

Elisabeth Elliot Love has a price tag
 
 
God Promises Mercy

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationhen a person reacts positively to a tragedy, thats a miracle. Psalm 23 concludes with the glorious line: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” That’s God’s way of saying that life will often be filled with goodness, but that even when God’s goodness can’t be seen, His mercy can be experienced. In the midst of tears, heartbreak, enormous loss and a terrible sorrow, suddenly a sweet mood, like a gentle kiss,will touch your wounded heart. That experience is called mercy. It comes as an expression of God’s love. The good news I have for you is: God promises mercy adequate enough to meet any tragedy.

Robert Schuller The Be Happy Attitudes
 
 
    Easter Message 2010

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationn ancient Jewish legend from the apocryphal book: “The life of Adam and Eve” lays bare the whole of humanity’s anguish at the destiny of illness, pain and death that has been imposed upon us. Man’s resistance to death becomes evident,- somewhere people have constantly thought; there must be some cure for death. Sooner or later it should be possible to find the remedy not only for this or that illness, but for our ultimate destiny – for death itself. Surely the medicine of immortality must exist. Indeed the cure for death does exist. Christ is the tree of life, once more within our reach. If we remain close to him, then we have life. Hence during this night of ressurection, with all our hearts we shall sing the alleluia, the song of joy that has no need of words.Joy cannot be commanded ,it can only be given. The risen Lord gives us joy: true life. We are already held forever in the love of the One to whom all power in Heaven and on earth has been given.

Pope Benedict XVI Easter Vigil Homily, 2010
 
 
Faith And TearsNo one can travel down the road of our wounds for us.. Robert A. Williams

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationoesn’t faith dry all tears? Religious people sometimes mishandle their own grief and the grief of others by thinking that faith and tears don’t mix. A sturdy faith in God and a firm belief in the promise of life eternal, this reason, should keep us from weeping or giving way to grief. But grief is not a denial of faith. The shortest verse in the Bible is found in John 11:35. It states simply: “Jesus wept.”

Haddon W. Robinson Grief
 
 
Banishing Worry

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationhe very best prescription for banishing worry is found in Psalm 37:5 “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass.” Think of the things you do not worry about. Perhaps you never worry about whether you’ll be able to get water out of the faucet in your kitchen, or maybe you do not worry about a tree falling on your house. Now ask yourself why you do not worry about such things. Is it because, in the case of running water, it has always been there every time you wanted it, or that a tree has never fallen on your house before? Certainty breeds trust, doesn’t it? We can be just as certain and just as worry-free about God’s love, protection and provision because He has never gone back on a single one of His promises. He never changes. Great is His fathfulness.

Billy Graham Unto The Hills
 
 
In You, Not Around YouLook at what you’ve left in your life; never look at what you’ve lost. Robert Schuller

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationll of us have wondered at times why God doesn’t do more to fix our problems. But our human eyes often fail to see that God isn’t rushing to change our circumstances because He is concerned with a much more serious problem, our character. While you struggle with the woes of this world, God’s main occupation is preparing you for the world to come. The focus of what God is doing in your life takes place in you, not around you.

Andy Stanley Like A Rock
 
 
A Place Of Healing

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationhere is someone who hears our hearts and understands even our unformed thoughts. Christ is that One. He woos us, and He waits for us to come to Him. With arms outstretched like open wings, He welcomes us. In this life we need a hiding place, and Christ offers us that, a place of comfort, a place of healing, but not a place of painlessness. There will come a day for each of us when…we will reside where He presides and hiding won’t be necessary, for we will be home…at last. Finally, we will be in a place where our tears will dry, our pain will pass, our hearts will heal and we won’t ever need to hide again, not from ourselves, not from each other and, Hallelujah, not from the One who knows us the best and loves us the most.

Patsy Clairmont Under His Wings
 
 
God’s Strength

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationature is God’s workshop. The sky is His resume. The universe is His calling card. You want to know who God is? See what He has done. You want to know his power? Take a look at His creation. Curious about His strength? Pay a visit to His home address: 1 Billion Starry Sky Avenue. Want to know His size? Step out into the night and stare at the starlight emitted one million years ago… What controls you doesn’t control Him. What troubles you doesn’t trouble Him. What fatigues you doesn’t fatigue Him…”What is impossible with man is possible with God.” (Matt. 19:26).

Max Lucado The Great House Of God
 
 
A little Place Of Sunshine
What you look for in life…you will surely find.
But the direction in which you look is up to you. Arthur Gordon

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationo know that I have helped someone a little or made a day brighter will make my own work easier and cause the sun to shine on the dark days, for we all have them. Tis then a little place of sunshine in the heart helps mightly. And there is nothing that puts so much brightness there as having helped someone else.

Laura Ingalls Wilder
Words from a fearless heart
 
 
Love And Trust

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolatione have been shown the way of acceptance on every page of the life of Jesus.It sprang from love and from trust. He set His face like a flint toward Jerusalem. He took up the Cross of His own will. No one could take his life from Him. He deliberately laid it down. He calls us to take up our Crosses. That is a different thing from capitulation or resignation. It is a glad and voluntary YES to the conditions we meet on our journey with Him, because these are the conditions He wants us to share with Him. Events are the Sacraments of the Will of God, that is, they are visable signs of an invisable reality. These provide the very place where we may learn to love and trust. Heaven waits for our responce.

Elisabeth Elliot The Path of Loneliness
 
 
Look For The Best

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationhe stone beside me marked the resting place of somebody’s BELOVED WIFE who died in 1865 of A FEVER. Beneath her name was a line of script, almost indistinguishable. I looked closer, wondering which biblical phrase her grieving children might have chosen. But it was not a quotation; it was a statement: EVER SHE SOUGHT THE BEST, EVER FOUND IT. Eight words. I stood there with my fingers on the cool stone, feeling the present fade and the past stir behind the illusion we call time. A century ago this woman had been living through a hideous war. Perhaps it took her husband from her, perhaps her sons. When it ended her country was beaten, broken, impoverished. She must have known humiliation, tasted despair. Yet someone knew her had written that she always looked for the best, and always found it.

Arthur Gordon A Touch of Wonder
 
 
A Part Of Life

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationhe master musician knows that suffering precedes glory and acclaim. He knows the hours, days and months of grueling practice and self sacrifice that precede the one hour of perfect rendition when his efforts are applauded. The master craftsman knows that years of work, sacrifice, and suffering as an apprentice precede his being promoted to the master of his trade. The student knows that the years of study, self denial and commitment precede the triumphant day of graduation with honors… The Bible teaches that suffering is a part of life for us in a sinful world. Paul said, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18 KJV).

Billy Graham Unto the Hills
 
 
God Is In ControlBad news won’t bother them; they have decided to trust the Lord. (Psalm 112:7 CEV)

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationeople who walk closely, steadily with God do not fear the future. Even when bad news comes, they can accept it. That doesn’t mean they won’t have emotions about it, sadness, anger, even despair. But they know there is no need to fear, even in the face of disaster, because they trust God. They know God is in control of All things. God can work all things for the good. So when even terrible circumstances erupt around them, their immediate reaction is to jump into God’s arms and let Him carry them.

Peter Wallace What the Psalmist Is Saying to You Today
 
 
Christian Hope

Inspirational Quotes of Hope and Consolationhe belief that love can reach into the afterlife, that reciprocal giving and receiving is possible, in which our affection for one another continues beyond the limits of death – this has been a fundamental conviction of Christianity throughout the ages and it remains a source of comfort today. Who would not feel the need to convey to their departed loved ones a sign of kindness, a gentle gesture of gratitude or even a request for pardon? Our lives are involved with one another, through innumerable interactions they are linked together. It is never too late to touch the heart of another, nor is it ever in vain. Our hope is always essentially also hope for others; only thus is it hope for me too. As Christians we should never limit ourselves to asking: How can I save myself? We should also ask: What can I do in order that others can be saved and that for them too the star of hope may rise? Then I will have done my utmost for my own personal salvation as well.

Pope Benedict XVI

Taken from “Encyclical Spe Salvi” on Christain Hope 2007.

 
 
 

 

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