Comforting scripture in times of death and grief

Yesterday after I got home from my adult art class, I had a note from my art teacher. She is a dear, sweet friend. Our group has been together for well over ten years and have become really good friends. During the last few years, 4 of us have lost our Mothers. Her husband had gotten this group of scriptures together for someone he knew going through a loss. When she saw it, she forwarded it to all of us. I wanted to share it in hopes that someone who reads them, will be comforted.

COMFORTING SCRIPTURE ON THE SUBJECT OF DEATH AND GRIEF

1.     God is sovereign over death; His timing is as He planned.

Psalm 39:4: “Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days…”

2.     Not even death can separate us from God and His love.

Romans 8:38-39: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

3.     Death for the believer means being in the presence of Christ.

Philippians 1:21-23: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.  If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.  Yet what shall I choose?  I do not know!  I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.”

2 Corinthians 5:6-8: “Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.  We live by faith, not by sight.  We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”

4.     Death for the believer means receiving a changed and glorified body.

John 11:25-26: “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.  Do you believe this?’”

Philippians 3:21: “Who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.”

I Corinthians 15:51-52: “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

5.     Jesus’s death brings ultimate freedom from fear of death.

I Peter 1:3-5: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”

6.     God can restore joy.

Isaiah 51:11: “The ransomed of the Lord will return.  They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads.  Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

7.     God’s presence and strength are constant.

Psalm 46:1-3, 7: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging…The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

Lamentations 3:21-24: “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.”

8.     We must help bring comfort to those who mourn the loss of someone close.

Romans 12:15: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”

John 11:33-36: “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.  ‘Where have you laid him?’ He asked.  “come and see, Lord,” they replied.  Jesus wept.  Then the Jews said, ‘See how He loved him!”

Psalm 116:15: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints [or godly ones].”

Revelation 14:13: “And I heard a voice from Heaven saying, ‘Write this: Blessed is the man who dies in the Lord from now on.’  “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

II Corinthians 1:3-4: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

Hebrews 12:1-2: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”