Turning tragedy into triumph!
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings,so also you share in our comfort.
8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters,[a] about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. — 2 Corinthians 1:3-11
“What you know is what gets you through.”
There is no GROWTH without CHANGE
There is no CHANGE without LOSS
There is no LOSS without PAIN
There is no PAIN without GRIEF
We know that life does NOT make sense, but we can have PEACE.
6 Stage of Loss/Stages to Get Through What We’re Going Through:
- SHOCK — when your world was suddenly turned upside down
- SORROW — grieving is the way we get through transitions in life. Sorrow is a Godly emotion.
- STRUGGLE — where you ask the WHY questions. The test of our FAITH is what happens when we don’t get the answer to our questions (why).
- SURRENDER — where you stop asking and start submitting and accepting. Surrendering to God all our questions grants us an un-understandable peace. “Do what is right, not what is easy.”
- SANCTIFICATION — when God starts bringing good out of the bad
- SERVICE — when God wants to take your greatest pain and turn it into your life message. Turn your mess into a message, and your test into a testimony.
BECAUSE WE KNOW, that God is with us and that God loves us, we can get through what we are going through.
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.” — Hebrews 13:5
God bless, always.
