October 2

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

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🔊 Mourning is the state of heart of those who grieve. From recognising our poverty of spirit, we move to grieving over the way we have hindered God and His grace through our spiritual ignorance and pride. We mourn as those who go to our own funeral; we lament the way we have lived. Attending our own funeral is always a blessed experience, for it causes us to see things in the right light. It should not lead us to grieve like those whose loss is irrevocable, since this funeral is not the end of our life on earth – it is just the end of the wasted years. And it marks the beginning of the ministry of the Comforter. The word ‘comfort’ does not only mean a loving touch and an exhortation to be brave – it means the empowering of the Holy Spirit to begin a new life. This mourning is blessed because it leads to the sense of a miserable life ending, and a joyful life beginning. Have you ever woken from a bad dream and realised that what you dreamed never happened? The relief and joy are sometimes so overwhelming that you feel like you have been given a fresh chance at life. This is the comfort that the Holy Spirit gives. We grieve over all the foolish things we have said and done, and wish we could start all over again, and the Holy Spirit draws near to us and enables us to do just that. Our former life of folly and defilement passes away from us like a bad dream, and the amazing joy dawns in our heart that we can truly start life this day without all the baggage of the past.