Living with grief, walking in grace...

Here are fifteen thoughts on this topic that form something of an outline:

Living with grief

1. Acknowledge your grief.

2. Receive the sympathy and help of others who want to love you in your grief.

3. Worship God in the midst of your grief.

4. Purify your grief of remaining sin.

5. Use your purified grief as a surprising ally in your battle against the sins that have troubled you all your life.

6. Thank God in the midst of a grief that you acknowledge to be somehow from Him, and admit that you will never fully understand.

7. Embrace grief as a fact of life here and now; ask God for daily strength, wisdom, and grace; and serve others in a world of loss.

Walking in grace

8. Hear and believe the story of sin, misery, despair, and death.

9. Hear and believe the story of the glory and greatness of the eternal triune God.

10. Hear and believe the story of God’s plan for the fullest display of both His justice and His mercy.

11. Hear and believe the story of the person of Jesus Christ as fully God and fully Man.

12. Hear and believe the story of the humiliation and exaltation of Jesus Christ, especially His cross and resurrection.

13. Hear and believe the story of the Holy Spirit and the church.

14. Hear and believe the story of the present heaven and the coming resurrection age.

Conclusion

15. Receive Jesus Christ as the holy center of both your grief and His grace, and embrace the gospel as one who is both living with grief and walking in grace.