When we experience the pain of grief it is usually associated with some sort of loss. Personal grief which affects the whole human race can be divided into two categories: godly grief and worldly grief. With godly grief loss still hurts and manifests through our soul’s anger and hurt, but the struggle compels us to turn toward God for help and relief. Even if we are not “feeling” God’s presence, we understand in the depths of our hearts that the only way to overcome our struggles and the battle with grief is to continue turning back to the Great I AM for support. As God’s children we are promised, “They who continue to seek Me will find Me”. When we keep choosing to turn around and go to the Lord -working out emotions connected to our grief, slowly but surely we will encounter relief in place of heaviness. We will move toward being able to live without regret, and move toward being able to understand that God is able to use all experiences, both positive and negative, to work some sort of truth and goodness into our lives. This type of godly grief will produce overcoming recovery, and spiritual awakening within. We will be able to move forward in the good plans God has for our lives.
On the contrary, worldly grief produces physical, emotional, and spiritual death. The hurt and anger in worldly grief is never worked out, but continues to grow and manifest as bitterness, rage, murder, failure to take responsibility for our feelings and actions, blame, manipulation, condemnation, hopelessness, judgments, and pride. Within this dark, deadly grief many get stuck, never processing through and finding release into the Light. It is God’s will for all to turn to Him, as we encounter and endure grief in our fallen world. Only He has the power to make us overcomers in grief – helping us move toward physical, emotional, and spiritual health and wholeness.
“For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to direct, produce a repentance that leads and contributes to salvation and deliverance from evil, and it never brings regret; but worldly grief [the hopeless sorrow that is characteristic of the pagan world] is deadly [breeding and ending in death]” (2Corinthians 7:10).
