Resources by Topic: Grief and Loss

It’s common for those who are grieving to find attending church difficult. So it’s certainly understandable that you would find aspects of church life very challenging right now. But let me also encourage you not to give up on attending church in person.

I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your loved one. I completely understand how you feel and absolutely know what it feels like myself to feel dismissed in my moment of pain by what others say and share.

When a child falls off a bike, she doesn’t need her father to explain the physics of why it happened. No. The child simply wants comfort. We don’t need explanations, most of which we wouldn’t understand anyway. We need “God, who comforts the downcast” (2 Corinthians 7:6). 

Clarrisa Moll, author of Beyond the Darkness, shares five tips for the holiday season for those who are grieving. She writes, “There is a joy to this season that death, trial, and suffering can never take away.” So true. Because of Jesus, we have a rock-solid hope. I believe that more than ever since Nanci entered His presence!

On the Equipping You in Grace show, Dave Jenkins talks with Randy Alcorn about how living in light of the truth of Heaven can help those grieving now and about finding your God-given identity after a loss. They also talk about Randy’s booklet Grieving with Hope: Walking with Jesus in Heartbreak.

I know that it can feel like other couples and families are too busy for you, but you really need to be with people right now. I encourage you to fight through the feelings that your Christian friends have their own lives. This is what the Christian community is supposed to do for each other.

In the journey of grief, we are not alone—one of the names of Jesus is Immanuel, which means “God with us.” Jesus is my closest and dearest friend. I can’t imagine life without Him.

We do want to be very careful to keep the focus on Jesus, and remember that He is the only Mediator we need. (Seeking contact with the dead is clearly forbidden in Scripture.)

We who are grieving need to hear these words: “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16, 18).

The Bible says this about grief: “And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope.” 

This is a blast from the past, at least for those of us old enough to remember Dallas Holm and Praise, and his 1977 mega-hit “I Will Rise Again.” I have listened to it multiple times recently, and it takes me back to a crucial time in my life.

One of our church’s Sunday school teachers recently died. We would like to get some resources (book recommendations/links to helpful information) to the parents in our church to help navigate discussions, prayer time, grief, etc. What resources do you recommend?

Your feelings, because of your grief, will be all over the map for a long time to come. They are real, but they won’t always tell the truth. What you read in God’s Word is always trustworthy. Marinate in it.

Far more than our perceived need for communication with our departed loved ones, we need Jesus. In His time and way, we will be reunited with those who have gone before us to Heaven. In the meantime, over and over again in His word, God promises to be with us, to never forsake us, to comfort and lead and guide us.