Bibly Study About Grief: The God Who Keeps Your Tears

THE TEARS GOD COUNTS

Brethren, hear this with a full heart and clear eyes. Grief is not the end of your story. The Lord sees, the Lord knows, the Lord keeps every tear. He is not far off. He is near to the brokenhearted and He binds up their wounds.

He numbers your wanderings, He puts your tears in His bottle, He writes them in His book. This is not empty comfort. This is covenant comfort. The Man of Sorrows has walked into our darkness, carried our griefs, borne our sorrows, and turned a borrowed tomb into an empty pulpit of hope.

Friends, because Jesus wept, you are permitted to weep. Because Jesus rose, you are promised to rise. Today we will face grief honestly, repent where sorrow must become godly, receive comfort where affliction presses hard, and stand in hope where death has tried to brag. Praise be to God.

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1) The Weight We Were Never Meant To Carry

Grief is real. God says so. Scripture gives us a whole vocabulary for it, because heaven understands the shades of our pain. There is grief that feels like sickness in the bones and soul, as Isaiah says of Christ, the Messiah is “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” and He has “borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3 to 4, KJV).

There is the life that feels spent and worn thin with sorrow, “My life is spent with grief” says the psalmist, yet the same Lord hears the voice of your weeping (Psalm 31:10, Psalm 6:6 to 7).

There is grief that sounds like vexation, the sting of provocation and injustice. Hannah said, “out of the abundance of my complaint and my grief have I spoken” and Scripture tells us God heard that cry and answered it with a child and a song (1 Samuel 1:16, 1 Samuel 1:15).

There is grief that is simply pain, the kind you cannot tidy up. Job’s friends saw that his “grief was very great” and sat with him in silence because sometimes presence is the sermon God chooses for the first day of sorrow (Job 2:13).

Friends, you are not weak because you grieve. You are human, and God draws near to humans who cry. “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart” and “He healeth the broken in heart” (Psalm 34:18, Psalm 147:3). Praise the Lord.

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2) When God Himself Weeps

This is the scandal of grace. God grieves. Scripture does not blush to say it. “It grieved Him at His heart” when He saw human evil in Noah’s day (Genesis 6:6). We are warned, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God” because sin injures communion with the Comforter who lives within us (Ephesians 4:30).

And then we stand before the tomb in Bethany and see the shortest verse that shakes the longest nights. “Jesus wept.” He groaned in the spirit, He troubled Himself, He cried real tears with real people whom He loved, even though resurrection was minutes away (John 11:33 to 35).

Do you feel alone in your sorrow? You are not. Our High Priest is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities” and sits as the One who knows what it means to be pressed and pierced and forsaken in the dark.

He looked on hard hearts with grief and holy anger, He lamented over Jerusalem with tears, He entered Gethsemane “exceeding sorrowful, even unto death,” and He cried out the lament of Psalm 22 on the cross (Mark 3:5, Luke 13:34, Matthew 26:38, Psalm 22:1). This is why we pray with honesty. This is why we hope with tenacity. Thank You Lord.

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3) Good Grief, Godly Sorrow, And The Way Back Home

Not all sorrow is the same. Scripture draws a line. “Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”

That is not theory, that is pastoral clarity from the apostle Paul to a wounded church that chose repentance over despair and found life again in Christ (2 Corinthians 7:9 to 10).

Look at Peter and Judas. Both failed. Both felt grief. One wept bitterly and came back to Jesus. One folded into himself and never turned to mercy (Luke 22:62).

Friends, what is your sorrow producing in you today? Is it breaking the heart open so grace can flow, or is it closing the fist around shame? Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up (James 4:9 to 10). Praise be to God.

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4) The Classroom Of Affliction

The Bible is candid. “Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” Heaviness is part of the journey, yet those very trials refine faith like gold and result in praise at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:6 to 7).

“No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness” to those trained by it (Hebrews 12:11).

Affliction becomes instruction. The Father of mercies and the God of all comfort comforts us in all our tribulation, and then turns us into living vessels who comfort others with the same comfort we received (2 Corinthians 1:3 to 4).

Friends, your tears are never wasted in the hands of God. He keeps them. He uses them. He turns them into ministry you never planned but will never regret. Thank You Lord.

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5) The Psalms Teach Us To Breathe

The Psalms do not pretend, they pray. One moment the couch is wet with tears and the eyes are consumed because of grief, the next moment faith says, “The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping” and strength begins to return in the same room where sobs echoed an hour ago (Psalm 6:6 to 7).

The soul talks to itself with Scripture. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me, hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him” (Psalm 42:11).

There are nights of weeping and there are mornings of joy. God wrote that rhythm into the songbook of Israel and into the seasons of your life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning (Psalm 30:5). Hold on through the night. Morning belongs to the Lord.

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6) Lament And Love In The Old Paths

Walk the old roads for a moment and listen. Jacob tore his clothes and wore sackcloth when he believed Joseph was gone, and he refused cheap comfort because real love grieves real losses (Genesis 37:34 to 35).

Job sat in the ashes and asked hard questions, then declared the line that has steadied saints for centuries, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him,” and “I know that my Redeemer liveth” and “in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 13:15, Job 19:25 to 27).

David’s tears watered his couch and later he cried out for Absalom with a father’s broken heart, yet he kept praying his laments into hope and his confessions into forgiveness (Psalm 6:6 to 7, 2 Samuel 18:33, Psalm 51:17).

Hannah poured out her soul with bitter weeping, Naomi renamed herself Mara in the bitterness of loss, and Jeremiah let rivers run down his face for a ruined city, then dared to say, “His compassions fail not” right in the middle of the ruins (1 Samuel 1:15 to 16, Ruth 1:20, Lamentations 3:48, Lamentations 3:22 to 23).

Brethren, grief is not a modern problem. It is an ancient pathway. And God meets His people on that road.

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7) The Resurrection That Rewrites Funerals

Jesus told His disciples a hard truth with a sweet ending. “Ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” He compared it to a woman in travail, anguish for a time, then a child in her arms, and the memory of pain fades in the face of new life (John 16:20 to 21).

Mary Magdalene wept in a garden and did not recognize the risen Lord until He spoke her name. The voice of Jesus turns grief into recognition and despair into mission.

The early church knew both tears and triumph. They made great lamentation over Stephen, they gathered in prayer for Peter, they mourned and they rejoiced together because the Spirit made them a family that felt each other’s wounds and shared each other’s songs (Acts 8:2, Acts 12:12 to 14, 1 Corinthians 12:26, Romans 12:15).

Paul himself wrote with tears, carried heaviness for stubborn hearts, and confessed pressures so great he despaired even of life, then testified, “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me” when others left him (Philippians 3:18, 2 Corinthians 1:8, 2 Timothy 4:16 to 17).

Friends, do not grieve as others who have no hope. We do grieve, but we do it with the promise of reunion, “for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,” we know those who sleep in Jesus will rise also at His coming (1 Thessalonians 4:13 to 14). Praise the Lord.

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8) Beauty For Ashes, Comfort For Sackcloth

Scripture paints grief in pictures you can feel. Sackcloth and ashes announce loss and humility, then the gospel walks in with a crown and calls it beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, because Jesus said that Isaiah 61 was His mission and He fulfilled it in our midst (Genesis 37:34, Isaiah 61:1 to 3, Luke 4:18).

Tears are so precious to God that He bottles them. The valley of the shadow is a place we pass through, not a hole we fall into, and the Shepherd walks every step with rod and staff that steady us until goodness and mercy escort us home (Psalm 56:8, Psalm 23).

Storms will come, but the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters. Shadows will fall, but the Sun of Righteousness rises with healing in His wings. Birth pangs hurt, but joy is born. Hold your ground. Help is here.

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9) Choose Your Direction In The Valley

So what do we do when sorrow sits at our table and will not leave quickly?

We tell the truth. “It is okay to grieve.” Jesus did. Paul did. David did. You can.
We refuse isolation. Weep with those who weep and let them weep with you, bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ (Romans 12:15, Galatians 6:2).

We pray what we have. If all you can do is groan, the Spirit Himself intercedes with groanings which cannot be uttered, and the Father understands every syllable of a sob (Romans 8:26).

We anchor to promises. Tape them to mirrors and hearts. “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart.” “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Thou art with me.” “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Psalm 34:18, Psalm 23:4, Revelation 21:4).

We let sorrow sanctify us. Trials produce steadfastness and the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Affliction becomes a teacher, and compassion becomes a ministry. Sow in tears and expect to reap in joy (James 1:2 to 4, Hebrews 12:11, Psalm 126:5).

Friends, let grief deepen you, not define you. Your name is not Bitter forever. Naomi learned that. Your couch will not always be wet. David learned that. Your Redeemer lives. Job preached that to himself until hope rose again.

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10) A Call To Decision

Hear me, beloved. You stand at a crossroads. One path hardens the heart and lets bitterness take root. The other path opens the heart and lets grace take hold. Which way will you turn today?

Will you bring your sorrow, your shame, your questions and your anger to the feet of Jesus, the Man of Sorrows who knows your story from the inside, or will you carry it alone another day and let the night lengthen without need?

Choose humility. Choose honesty. Choose hope. The Lord will not cast off forever, but though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. His mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness (Lamentations 3:31 to 33, Lamentations 3:22 to 23). Praise be to God.

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A Prayer For The Grieving

Father of mercies and God of all comfort, we come with full hands. Some hands shake. Some hands are empty. You count our wanderings. You keep our tears. Draw near to every broken heart.

Turn godly sorrow into repentance and life. Turn heavy affliction into holy fruit. Turn nights into mornings. Turn funerals into foretastes of resurrection. Teach our souls to say, I shall yet praise Him. Thank You Lord for Jesus, who wept, who died, who rose, who is coming again. In His mighty name we pray. Amen.

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Scripture Index, KJV

• Isaiah 53:3 to 4
• Psalm 31:10
• 1 Samuel 1:15 to 16
• Job 2:13
• Psalm 6:6 to 7
• Psalm 34:18
• Psalm 147:3
• Genesis 6:6
• Ephesians 4:30
• John 11:33 to 35
• Mark 3:5
• Luke 13:34
• Matthew 26:38
• Psalm 22:1
• 2 Corinthians 7:9 to 10
• Luke 22:62
• James 4:9 to 10
• 1 Peter 1:6 to 7
• Hebrews 12:11
• 2 Corinthians 1:3 to 4
• Psalm 42:11
• Psalm 30:5
• Genesis 37:34 to 35
• Job 13:15
• Job 19:25 to 27
• 2 Samuel 18:33
• Psalm 51:17
• 1 Samuel 1:15 to 16
• Ruth 1:20
• Lamentations 3:48
• Lamentations 3:22 to 23
• John 16:20 to 21
• Acts 8:2
• Acts 12:12 to 14
• 1 Corinthians 12:26
• Romans 12:15
• Philippians 3:18
• 2 Corinthians 1:8
• 2 Timothy 4:16 to 17
• 1 Thessalonians 4:13 to 14
• Isaiah 61:1 to 3
• Luke 4:18
• Psalm 56:8
• Psalm 23:1 to 6
• Revelation 21:4
• Galatians 6:2
• Romans 8:26
• James 1:2 to 4
• Psalm 126:5
• Lamentations 3:31 to 33

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One More Word Of Courage

Friends, you will laugh again. Jesus said so. “Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh” (Luke 6:21). Keep your eyes on the One who calls you by name. Keep your Bible open when your heart feels closed. Keep walking, even if it is slow. Goodness and mercy are following you all the days of your life, and the house of the Lord awaits. Praise the Lord.