Grief During the Holidays | Holidays with Crossroads

Grief during the holidays. That's a tough topic. And it takes an extra special set of skills to get through in a way that's honoring to yourself and honoring to those around you. So we're gonna talk a little bit about what we tap into a different way of thinking about grief during the holidays. A lot of times during the holidays, memories come back. Things we haven't thought about in a long time. Some of them can be very good. Some of them can be very challenging. And one of the most important things is that no matter our circumstances, no matter our past, no matter our present, we have been given an amazing ability by God to have dominion over our internal world and over the response that we have to our circumstances. It's really hard to remember when we feel like we don't have options, when we feel like we're flooded with emotions that are bubbling up, especially at this time of year, which holds so many different types of memories for so many different types of people. And so one of the things that we can do is lean into scripture, in particular into one person in scripture, and that's David. David was a man who was extraordinarily complex and was very, very familiar with grief.

He also had an unbelievable awareness of his internal world. And we can find this all throughout the Psalms. David is the one who cries out in Psalm 103, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me. He was speaking to the internal world of his own heart, his own mind, because he found himself in the valley of grief and despair. And he knew that within his spirit, he had the ability to rise and to be victorious and to be made whole. David wasn't perfect. He was a murderer. He was a murderer. He was an adulterer. He was a prophet. He was a king. He was a man after God's own heart. And because of his imperfection, like us, we can look to him for authentic ways to encourage ourselves during these really challenging times. Holidays can be very beautiful. They can also be extraordinarily challenging, especially when emotions that we aren't predicting or we aren't counting on begin to surface. We can seek peace through David's example. In Psalm 51, verse six, he says, Lord, you desire truth in my inward parts. He's again referring to his internal response, his internal world. He was often in a cave.

He was often on the run, trying to kill him. He had no control over his external circumstances, but he did know that he had control over his internal response to those circumstances. So when the memories come, when the emotions are overwhelming, we can be like David and we can encourage ourselves and understand that we have dominion. No man can take away the dominion that we have over our internal world, regardless of where we find ourselves in our external circumstances. And so remembering that we, within the scripture and within ourselves, to find the peace that God promises us and to find his comfort. Psalm 34, 18 says that the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. That's a promise that we can count on, particularly from our Messiah and our Savior in this holiday season. So I'd like to pray a blessing over you in the name of Jesus. And before I do that, I just want to highlight why we pray and why we bless in the name of Jesus. And that's because it's not about the pronoun. It's not about his name that we think of. It's what the name means. It's what the name of Jesus represents.

It represents all spiritual power, all spiritual authority, all of which has been given to us as his followers to operate in his name, which means name access that he has. had to the father. And so in the name of Jesus, I bless you with deep shalom in this holiday season. In the name of Jesus, I bless you with remembering that you have dominion over your interior world, and over your healthy just to your circumstances when the emotions come. In the name of Jesus, I bless you as a peacemaker to bring peace to others. And so it's a little bit of a challenge. I'd like to challenge you to bless others in the name of Jesus this holiday season. Have the opportunity to