The hope of the resurrection is sometimes the only thing that keeps us from being utterly consumed by grief. As the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:19, “If we have set our hopes on the Messiah in this life only, we deserve more pity than any other people.” But we haven’t. The believer’s hope reaches far beyond our mortal lives. Christ didn’t come simply to give us a better life here on earth. He died and rose again to prove there is a resurrection for everyone who believes in him. Because of this, we can be hope filled, even in our sorrow.

Many believe death is the end of life, but Christians know it is the portal to eternal life. When Christ died on the cross and rose again, he went on ahead to prepare a place for us. I take great comfort in knowing my loved ones who are believers in Jesus are with him in a real place called heaven. Instead of mourning because I’ll never see them again, I can look forward to spending eternity with them in the presence of Jesus.

...and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8

This verse, paired with the New Testament story of Jesus’ last hours on the cross, reassures me that as soon as my loved ones took their last breaths on earth, they took their first breaths in heaven. I don’t have to wonder if they’re languishing in some in-between holding place hoping to one day see Jesus. Like Christ told the thief on the cross when he placed his faith in him, “Today, you will be with me in paradise” ~Luke 23:43

A beloved pastor once described death as walking from one room into the next. The moment my loved ones stepped out of the room called earth, they stepped into the room called heaven. And Jesus was waiting for them there.

~ Lori Hatcher

Can we help being struck with the abundant evidence of the glorious doctrines of a future state, the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection of the body—with which we are furnished in the Word of God? This is no speculation of man's judgment, no dream of philosophy, no mere vision of excited hope—but the revelation of God! "Jesus Christ has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light by the gospel." "We know in whom we have believed." "We know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

~John Angell James

Cling to the Lord and He will comfort you through the process of grieving and, in the future, will replace your sorrow with great, unending joy!

Psalm 34:18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Psalm 56:8 You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?

Psalm 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Matt. 5:1-3 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Psalm 73:26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Isaiah 53:4-6 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

John 14:1 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.

John 14:2-3 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

2 Cor. 5:7-9 For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him

Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

Pill. 4:7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 51:12 I am he who comforts you.

2 Thess, 2:16-17 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and

establish them in every good work and word.

Matt. 28:20 Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Job 5:11 He sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

Psalm 119:49-50 Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life

1 John 4:8 God is love

John 14:27 Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid

Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance

Psalms 119:92 If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.

Philippians 3:13-14 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Psalms 116:15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

Psalms 119:50 This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.

Isaiah 51:11 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

1 Corinthians 15:54-55 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

Revelation 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

Revelation 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Psalm 30:5..Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.

There is an essential difference between the decease of the godly and the death of the ungodly. Death comes to the ungodly man as a penal infliction, but to the righteous as a summons to his Father’s palace. To the sinner it is an execution, to the saint an undressing from his sins and infirmities. Death to the wicked is the King of terrors. Death to the saint is the end of terrors, the commencement of glory.

Octavius Winslow

O child of sorrow! Will not this suffice, that you possess Christ’s sympathy, immeasurable and exhaustless as the ocean, exquisite and changeless as His being? Yield your heart to His rich compassion! Will Jesus be regardless of what I feel, and the sorrows under which I groan? Oh no! The sigh that bursts in secret from my heart is not secret to Him; the tear that is my food day and night, and drops unperceived and unknown, is known and remembered by Him!

George Macdonald

The shadows of the evening that precedes a lovelier morning are drawing down around us both. But our God is in the shadow as in the shine, and all is and will be well: have we not seen his glory in the face of Jesus? and do we not know him a little?…This life is a lovely time, but I never was content with it. I look for better — oh, so far better! I think we do not yet know the joy of mere existence…. May the loving Father be near you and may you know it, and be perfectly at peace all the way into the home country, and to the palace home of the living one — the life of our life.

Alexander MacLaren

Oh, when we are journeying through the murky night and the dark woods of affliction and sorrow, it is something to find here and there a spray broken, or a leafy stem bent down with the tread of His foot, and the brush of His hand as He passed; and to remember that the path He trod He has hallowed, and thus to find lingering fragrance and hidden strength in the remembrance of Him as “in all points tempted like as we are,” bearing grief for us, bearing grief with us, bearing grief like us.

Henry Law

“God sees me,” is the sweet solace of the true believer. He knows the way that I take, will make that rugged way seem smooth. If perils and distress so shake the heart that plenteous tears give evidence of suffering, these tears are marked on high, and tender compassion will wipe them all away. The day has not yet come when there shall be no more tears. But the day is always present when they awaken sympathy in the Redeemer’s breast. He who wept on earth will soon wipe all tears away!

George Muller

I miss my wife in numberless ways and shall miss her yet more and more, but as a child of God and as a servant of the Lord Jesus I bow. I’m satisfied with the will of my heavenly Father. I seek by perfect submission to his holy will to glorify Him and kiss continually the hand that has thus afflicted me. ( Written after his wife’s death)