In March 2024 my Dad passed away and since then I have been grieving that loss. I have lost people in my life that I am close to but never anyone as close as my Dad. He was a great man who loved me and my family so well and he taught me so many things that dads are supposed to teach their daughters. Probably the most important thing he taught me was to be a woman who trusts in the Lord.
I knew after he passed it was going to be hard. I see my Dad in so many things around me, the cotton that grows in a field near me, farmers on their tractors and even in my own children. So, I knew after my Dad passed that I wanted to grieve well and grieve with hope. And as most people experience the loss of someone and are needing help grieving, they seek out help from others, the newest grief book or devotional, or even social media for advice on how to grieve. Not to say those things are bad but it was not helping me at all. So, one day it was pressed on me to start reading the Bible chronologically through the Bible Recap. I highly recommend it. They even have a children’s version too. I knew that nothing else was going to help me through my grief like being in the word.
Well, if you read through the Bible chronologically, on day 4 you start the book of Job. Job is the 18th book of the Bible but chronologically it comes after Genesis chapter 11. If you don’t know much about the book of Job, I encourage you to look up the Bible Project and watch the video over it. If there was anyone, other than Jesus, that suffered in the Bible it was Job. He was a righteous man that was going through hard times. This was the exact type of grief help I needed, to see how he grieved and overcame. Most people think this book of the Bible can be so depressing because of all that Job endured, but I found it to be quite encouraging in the way that Job remained faithful to God even in his grief.
In Job 29:4 it says, “I would be as I was in the days of my youth when God’s friendship rested on my tent.” Here Job is at one of his lowest points and is reflecting to his youth when God’s friendship rested on his home. It’s not that he lost faith in God while he was going through the hard times, but it was a reminder to him of God’s friendship then and now.
That is what I had to do every day when I woke up in tears, when someone said my Dad’s name or when I saw a farmer on his tractor and a sudden rush of emotions came over me. I had to look back over my life, remember my friendship with the loving Father and know that I still have that friendship, and it remains over my tent. Not only did knowing this truth about our Father help me grieve well, but so did spending time in His Word more than I ever had before.
Grief in the Bible is defined as pain in the body and mind or being in sorrow. Grief is not just the loss of someone; it can be grief over a physical aliment, loss of job, intrusive thoughts, etc. There is also no timeline of when grief will be over, everyone’s journey is different.
So, whatever your grief is, I encourage you to seek the Lord through His Word because He is the truth during your grief. I still have moments where I can be fine one minute and sobbing the next over my dad, but I’m reminded to seek the Lord and to look back at my youth at his abundant blessings over my life.
We want to thank Bethany Williams for sharing this post.
Women's Ministry 