I perceive that the grieving mind experiences three categories of passive thought. This is where the unengaged parts of the sorrowful soul naturally go: Missing. Feeling-alone. Hoping.
Hoping can be divided into two categories: temporal and eternal.
Temporal hope can be further broken down into 2 categories: spiritual and physical.
Temporal spiritual hope looks like this, and it seems reasonable that if one hopes for something, that one would also strive towards it.
1Ti 6:6 True godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.
Ps 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd; I have all that I need.
Ec 5:19b To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life––this is indeed a gift from God.
Heb 13:5 …be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
Php. 4:11b I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Contentment. Confidence. Capability. These are pretty good temporal hopes and goals. They are also exciting promises, especially considering the resource we have been given to fulfill them. We have been given God. John Piper quotes Jonathan Edwards in ‘Pierced By The Word”…
“The redeemed have all their objective good in God. God himself is the great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption. He is the highest good and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased. God is the inheritance of the saints; he is the portion of their souls. God is their wealth and treasure, their food, their life, their dwelling place, their ornament and diadem and their everlasting honor and glory.”
With this truth firmly in mind, we may be those who are, “…sorrowful, yet always rejoicing…” (2 Co 6:10)
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