Day 220 - What Is at the Center of Your Life?

365 daily emails to help you through the grieving process Grief support groups: Click here to find a GriefShare group near you. If you would like to find a group for a friend or relative, try our Search Page. Want to read ahead or resend a previous daily email? Click Here What Is at the Center of Your Life? Day 220 In the solar system, planets have a predictable orbit because the sun is a stable gravitational "center." Imagine what would happen to those planets if the sun suddenly disappeared. You, too, need a stable center for your life, or your life could go spinning off into orbit. Perhaps you feel as if you are floating crazily and aimlessly right now. Take care not to place another person at the center of your life; your life cannot revolve around a person because no matter how much that individual loves you, he or she is fallible and can unintentionally fail you. Dee Brestin says, "Put your trust in God. It sounds simplistic. I think that often particularly women have a tendency toward depending on people instead of God. They cling too tightly. They don't think they will ever be alone. They almost tend to make that person like God, and they're shocked when that person either lets them down or dies. How important it is to know that you have a Friend who is closer than a brother, who will never let you down and will never die." In the end, only one thing is permanent. Your relationship with God, if you have one, cannot be taken away. Because this relationship is so critical to your stability, it's important to know for sure that you have the kind of relationship with Him that will ensure He is permanently in the center of your life. "Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you" (Psalm 9:10). Lord God, You will never leave me or let me down. Forgive me for placing other people and things at the center of my life. I want You as my secure foundation. Amen. Grieving with Hope This GriefShare-based book contains short, topical chapters addressing issues that grieving people face but are often hesitant to mention to others; it gently guides people to determine whether they're grieving in a way that leads to hope and ultimate healing. Look for Grieving with Hope by Samuel Hodges and Kathy Leonard at a local or online bookstore or at griefshare.org/hope. If you would like to recommend these daily emails to a friend, please click here and choose one of the options under Share. For more information about GriefShare, including how to sign up for these daily emails, please click here. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2003-2013 by The Church Initiative, Inc., All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without explicit permission in writing from Church Initiative. You subscribed to this daily email through www.griefshare.org. We value your privacy! We will never give, sell, rent, or otherwise share your email or personal information with any other organization — EVER. To remove this email address from further mailings Click Here while connected to the internet. If you have any problems or concerns, please contact dailyemailsupport@griefshare.org. GriefShare 250 S. Allen Rd. Wake Forest, NC 27587 (800) 395-5755

Day 219 - Security

365 daily emails to help you through the grieving process Grief support groups: Click here to find a GriefShare group near you. If you would like to find a group for a friend or relative, try our Search Page. Want to read ahead or resend a previous daily email? Click Here Security Day 219 When you believe in Jesus and receive Him, you are ushered into the most secure position in the universe. It does not mean things will be easy, but it does mean He will always be with you and sustain you. The boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." (Matthew 14:24-33) Your security is in Christ. You are safe and empowered when you remain in Him. "The more you focus on the problem, on the bad thing that is happening to you, your life just goes down, down, down," says Anne Graham Lotz. "It's like Peter when he was walking on the waves. When he started looking at the waves and all of his circumstances, he started to sink. He started to go down, and he needed to keep his eyes on Christ." Lord, I lift my eyes to You. Keep me from focusing on the negative, and teach me to embrace the good, which is only in You. Amen. Through a Season of Grief The daily email messages you are receiving are also available in a book format. Purchase as a gift for a friend or buy a print copy for yourself. Through a Season of Grief by Bill Dunn and Kathy Leonard is available at online and local bookstores or at griefshare.org/devotional. If you would like to recommend these daily emails to a friend, please click here and choose one of the options under Share. For more information about GriefShare, including how to sign up for these daily emails, please click here. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2003-2013 by The Church Initiative, Inc., All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without explicit permission in writing from Church Initiative. You subscribed to this daily email through www.griefshare.org. We value your privacy! We will never give, sell, rent, or otherwise share your email or personal information with any other organization — EVER. To remove this email address from further mailings Click Here while connected to the internet. If you have any problems or concerns, please contact dailyemailsupport@griefshare.org. GriefShare 250 S. Allen Rd. Wake Forest, NC 27587 (800) 395-5755

Day 218 - Yielding to His Lordship

365 daily emails to help you through the grieving process Grief support groups: Click here to find a GriefShare group near you. If you would like to find a group for a friend or relative, try our Search Page. Want to read ahead or resend a previous daily email? Click Here Yielding to His Lordship Day 218 God is not a therapist; He is not just someone you approach to make it through a difficult time. He is Lord and Savior. Your greatest joy will come when you yield your whole life to Him. "Know that you have to leave it up to Him, and you have no control over life or death-that's what sustained me through it all," says Gretchen, whose husband died. When you honor Him as God, you are better able to accept the circumstances of life. "Woe is me for my hurt! My wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it" (Jeremiah 10:19 KJV). Father, yielding to Your Lordship is difficult for me, but I want to give my every thought and effort to You, not just to get me through the rough times, but as an act of worship to You. Amen. Grieving with Hope This GriefShare-based book contains short, topical chapters addressing issues that grieving people face but are often hesitant to mention to others; it gently guides people to determine whether they're grieving in a way that leads to hope and ultimate healing. Look for Grieving with Hope by Samuel Hodges and Kathy Leonard at a local or online bookstore or at griefshare.org/hope. If you would like to recommend these daily emails to a friend, please click here and choose one of the options under Share. For more information about GriefShare, including how to sign up for these daily emails, please click here. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2003-2013 by The Church Initiative, Inc., All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without explicit permission in writing from Church Initiative. You subscribed to this daily email through www.griefshare.org. We value your privacy! We will never give, sell, rent, or otherwise share your email or personal information with any other organization — EVER. To remove this email address from further mailings Click Here while connected to the internet. If you have any problems or concerns, please contact dailyemailsupport@griefshare.org. GriefShare 250 S. Allen Rd. Wake Forest, NC 27587 (800) 395-5755

Day 217 - Learning to Worship

365 daily emails to help you through the grieving process Grief support groups: Click here to find a GriefShare group near you. If you would like to find a group for a friend or relative, try our Search Page. Want to read ahead or resend a previous daily email? Click Here Learning to Worship Day 217 You were created to worship God. Worship means to honor or reverence; to regard with great or extravagant respect or devotion (Merriam-Webster). Do these words describe your response to God? Dr. Ray Pritchard says, "I would define worship in the broadest sense as the soul's response to God. It is anything that I do in my soul where I am truly aware of my heavenly Father, and I am turning to Him in the time of need. It might be with joy. It might be with praise. But very often it's with a broken heart. "I think that in those moments when you have lost someone very precious to you, God is honored when deep inside you turn to Him and cry out, 'Oh God, oh Lord, You are awesome. Your ways are beyond finding out. Lord, I do not understand, but I bow before You because You are an awesome God.' That to me is worship." Hezekiah was a king who trusted God with wholehearted devotion both in good times and in bad. The Bible records that "there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him" (2 Kings 18:5). Even in the midst of bitter tears, Hezekiah approached God with a reverent, worshipful heart, and God heard his prayer: "'Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.' And Hezekiah wept bitterly" (2 Kings 20:3). O Lord God, my heart cries out to You. I worship You with reverence. You are Lord of all. Amen. Through a Season of Grief The daily email messages you are receiving are also available in a book format. Purchase as a gift for a friend or buy a print copy for yourself. Through a Season of Grief by Bill Dunn and Kathy Leonard is available at online and local bookstores or at griefshare.org/devotional. If you would like to recommend these daily emails to a friend, please click here and choose one of the options under Share. For more information about GriefShare, including how to sign up for these daily emails, please click here. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2003-2013 by The Church Initiative, Inc., All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without explicit permission in writing from Church Initiative. You subscribed to this daily email through www.griefshare.org. We value your privacy! We will never give, sell, rent, or otherwise share your email or personal information with any other organization — EVER. To remove this email address from further mailings Click Here while connected to the internet. If you have any problems or concerns, please contact dailyemailsupport@griefshare.org. GriefShare 250 S. Allen Rd. Wake Forest, NC 27587 (800) 395-5755

Day 216 - Seeking to Know God

365 daily emails to help you through the grieving process Grief support groups: Click here to find a GriefShare group near you. If you would like to find a group for a friend or relative, try our Search Page. Want to read ahead or resend a previous daily email? Click Here Seeking to Know God Day 216 In today's culture, people are typically unaware of the daily urgency of living for God. It is imperative to choose to live for Christ today because you do not know if you will be given another chance to decide. You do not know what the future holds. The only certainty is that those who surrender their lives to Christ will be given the gift and the hope of a glorious eternal life with Him. Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24). If you have already made the decision to commit your life to Christ, where are you in that commitment? Do not be content with a shallow faith and basic biblical knowledge. Delve into the Bible, search the Scriptures, pray powerfully, and listen carefully to what God is longing to teach you. "Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: 'How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you'" (Proverbs 1:20–23). Mighty God, I am not content to continue in my own simple ways. I want to know You as I have never known You before. Amen. Grieving with Hope This GriefShare-based book contains short, topical chapters addressing issues that grieving people face but are often hesitant to mention to others; it gently guides people to determine whether they're grieving in a way that leads to hope and ultimate healing. Look for Grieving with Hope by Samuel Hodges and Kathy Leonard at a local or online bookstore or at griefshare.org/hope. If you would like to recommend these daily emails to a friend, please click here and choose one of the options under Share. For more information about GriefShare, including how to sign up for these daily emails, please click here. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2003-2013 by The Church Initiative, Inc., All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without explicit permission in writing from Church Initiative. You subscribed to this daily email through www.griefshare.org. We value your privacy! We will never give, sell, rent, or otherwise share your email or personal information with any other organization — EVER. To remove this email address from further mailings Click Here while connected to the internet. If you have any problems or concerns, please contact dailyemailsupport@griefshare.org. GriefShare 250 S. Allen Rd. Wake Forest, NC 27587 (800) 395-5755

Day 215 - Contemplate the Cross

365 daily emails to help you through the grieving process Grief support groups: Click here to find a GriefShare group near you. If you would like to find a group for a friend or relative, try our Search Page. Want to read ahead or resend a previous daily email? Click Here Contemplate the Cross Day 215 "The clearest demonstration of the love of God is the cross," says Dr. Larry Crabb. "Without an understanding of the cross, you're never going to get God's love clear in your mind. Do you feel unlovable? Have people turned away from you in your grief? Has anyone glibly offered to pray for you or shared Scripture with you without really taking time to listen to you? Have you heard the story of what Jesus did on the cross, but do not feel it personally? Instead of focusing on how inadequate other people are at expressing their love for you, direct your attention to the cross of Christ. Take time to listen to its message of love. Crabb continues, "This hanging on the cross is the richest, clearest, most convincing demonstration of God's love. Without contemplating the cross and looking at it, Christians, you draw the wrong conclusions sometimes." Direct your attention to the cross at Calvary. Here is where you are reconciled to God, where you receive the fullness of Christ through His shed blood. If you continued to direct your focus to the cross throughout this day, the next day, and the days after that, you would know without a doubt His love for you. You would begin to live your life on a higher plane. "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him [Jesus Christ], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross" (Colossians 1:19-20). Loving God, the Bible says that it was Your pleasure to reconcile me to You through this amazing sacrifice on the cross. Help me to focus on the cross and to understand the intense personal significance that I will find there. Amen. Through a Season of Grief The daily email messages you are receiving are also available in a book format. Purchase as a gift for a friend or buy a print copy for yourself. Through a Season of Grief by Bill Dunn and Kathy Leonard is available at online and local bookstores or at griefshare.org/devotional. If you would like to recommend these daily emails to a friend, please click here and choose one of the options under Share. For more information about GriefShare, including how to sign up for these daily emails, please click here. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2003-2013 by The Church Initiative, Inc., All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without explicit permission in writing from Church Initiative. You subscribed to this daily email through www.griefshare.org. We value your privacy! We will never give, sell, rent, or otherwise share your email or personal information with any other organization — EVER. To remove this email address from further mailings Click Here while connected to the internet. If you have any problems or concerns, please contact dailyemailsupport@griefshare.org. GriefShare 250 S. Allen Rd. Wake Forest, NC 27587 (800) 395-5755

Day 214 - His Love

365 daily emails to help you through the grieving process Grief support groups: Click here to find a GriefShare group near you. If you would like to find a group for a friend or relative, try our Search Page. Want to read ahead or resend a previous daily email? Click Here His Love Day 214 When you surrender your life to Christ Jesus, you become wholly aware of His great love for you. Your past sins are wiped away, and you can be assured that He will never leave you. "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in him'" (Lamentations 3:22-24 rsv). God loves you so much that there is nothing you can do to cause Him to turn away from you. He is always there for you; He is your hope; and He is all you need. Dr. Larry Crabb says, "Christ is looking at you and saying, 'Take the worst discouragement that you ever felt, the deepest pain you ever felt, the worst sin you ever committed. Combine them all and they are not enough to make Me move away from you.'" Father God, I'm so glad that You will never leave me. You love me so much; I can barely comprehend it. Yes, Lord, my hope is in You. Amen. Grieving with Hope This GriefShare-based book contains short, topical chapters addressing issues that grieving people face but are often hesitant to mention to others; it gently guides people to determine whether they're grieving in a way that leads to hope and ultimate healing. Look for Grieving with Hope by Samuel Hodges and Kathy Leonard at a local or online bookstore or at griefshare.org/hope. If you would like to recommend these daily emails to a friend, please click here and choose one of the options under Share. For more information about GriefShare, including how to sign up for these daily emails, please click here. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2003-2013 by The Church Initiative, Inc., All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without explicit permission in writing from Church Initiative. You subscribed to this daily email through www.griefshare.org. We value your privacy! We will never give, sell, rent, or otherwise share your email or personal information with any other organization — EVER. To remove this email address from further mailings Click Here while connected to the internet. If you have any problems or concerns, please contact dailyemailsupport@griefshare.org. GriefShare 250 S. Allen Rd. Wake Forest, NC 27587 (800) 395-5755