August 23
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GRIEF TURNED TO JOY
12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.16 “A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.” 17 Some of His disciples then said to one another, “What is this thing He is telling us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?” 18 So they were saying, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is talking about.” 19 Jesus knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, “Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me’? 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. 21 Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. 22 Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. – John 16:12-22
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In this account, John tells us what the Lord shared with His disciples before He fulfilled the promise of God to save mankind. He is appeasing their grief over what is going to happen to them when He is gone. He likens their grief to a woman in labor pains. A woman’s labor pain is excruciatingly unbearable; but the pain turns into joy when she gives birth to her child. The pain is replaced by the joy that comes from knowing that her baby has come to life.
Jesus tells His disciples that It may be painful to think that He is going to leave them soon, but the promise of a Helper is going to ease their pain. When He comes back again, there will be overwhelming joy to all those who love Him. It will make their pain of losing Him worthwhile.
When we go through grief, we can easily become discouraged or hopeless, but those who believe in Jesus will always have hope because He will never forsake those who love Him.
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REFLECTION
• How can your grief be turned to joy when you lose something or someone?