Blessed are those who mourn

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted  Matthew 5:4

Dear Father, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort (II Corinthians 1:3),

Because we live in a fallen world and therefore death and loss are a basic part of our journey on this earth, I know that these children will experience loss, sorrow and mourning. If I could protect them from that, I would. But the  only way to avoid all of it is simply not to live at all. We know that you will raise the believers from the dead, but that does not remove the pain of loss. Your Son patterned that when Lazarus died - though he knew that he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, he wept.

I also understand that mourning and loss are not just about death, but about other kinds of losses - loss of relationship, loss of dreams, loss of job and even loss of contests.

So, first my prayer is to call upon your promise for these children that in times of mourning, you will comfort them. I believe that this kind of comfort is not simply them feeling better about things, but that in some supernatural way, your Spirit gives peace into their hearts beyond what is humanly normal. That is my prayer for them.

Secondly I pray that in these times they will stay connected to their family of believers. Your servant Paul tells us that one means that comfort comes to us is through others who have previously received your comfort (II Corinthians 1:4-5). Their tendency may be to pull away from people in these times, but I pray they do not and that you bring strong comforters in to their lives from within their family of faith.

Lastly I pray that, indeed, by the experience of comfort that they receive in these times, that they will become people of compassion, who reach out to those who mourn to provide comfort as they have been comforted. Give them a special grace of being comforters, giving them wisdom of what to say - and what not to say - to people who are in distress, such that your comfort naturally flows out of them.

Amen