“The deepest happiness is not that which has never suffered,
but that which has passed through the experience of sorrow and has been
comforted.”
“In the kingdom of heaven those are favored ones who are
called to suffer. Instead of being unfortunate, they are the blessed.”
“Sorrow in itself is not a blessing. Sickness, pain,
affliction, trial are not favors in themselves. These experiences can be
nothing else but hard and bitter. It is
only in their fruits that the blessing comes.”
“We should never know God’s marvelous comfort if we never
had sorrow.”
“God may not spare His children the grief, because there is
a blessing in it, either for themselves or for others, but if they must drink
the cup, He would strengthen them for it.
In one of the Psalms there is a word which is full of rich
suggestion. We are bidden to cast all
our burden upon the Lord. In the margin,
however, is the word gift, as another reading, - “Cast thy gift upon the Lord.” So our burden is God’s gift to us. This is
true whatever the burden may be – duty, sorrow, pain, loss, care. Being God’s
gift, there must be a blessing in it, something good, something we could not
miss without sore loss.”
“This then is the blessing which comes to those who mourn –
they receive the strength of God to sustain them in their sorrow. The burden may not be lightened, but it is
really an answer to the heart’s cry for help if new strength is given. Then the
sufferer is enabled to sing, - the sorrow is changed to joy.”
Miller, J. R. The Master's Blesseds. Swengel: Reiner
Publications, 1977. 25-30. Print.
