Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Matthew 5:4-5 NIV
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MOURNING, in addition to anguish in response to personal loss, includes broken heartedness over our failures and disobedience, sorrow over the state of the world, and deep grief over sin and its effects. Our comfort in all this sorrow is knowing that our good and loving Savior-God is in control.
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“Sometimes our way lies in the sunlight.
Other times it lies in the path of sorrow.
Yet even sorrows turn to blessings
when they make us less attached to the world and more attached to God.
Then more than ever we discover that Jesus truly is our friend.
Billy Graham
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Blessed and enviably happy
[with a happiness produced by the experience of God’s favor
and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace]
are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!
Matthew 5:4 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
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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.
Alexander MacLaren
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How happy are those who know what sorrow means
for they will be given courage and comfort!
Matthew 5:4 J. B. Phillips New Testament
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“Lamenting is the spiritually mature response to sadness and sorrow.
Our spiritual aliveness is not found in our ability to suppress our sadness.
Our spiritual aliveness is found in our ability to bring it to God.”
Rich Villodas