Family Chapel Pastor Joshua Lim

Isaiah presents a beautiful picture of our future hope in God's Kingdom - people from all nations will gather together to worship God and live in perfect peace. But because human pride is the greatest obstacle to experiencing that future hope, we need to embrace a hopeful humility. This humility repents of prideful self-exaltation, removes idols that promise false hopes, and relies on God for true salvation. In the end, there is no belonging to God's Kingdom apart from humility because the King himself is a humble king.

This first chapter opens up like a courtroom scene with God as the plaintiff and Judah as the defendant. Even though God has been a loving Father, God's people have rebelled against Him with their impiety and injustice. At the heart of rebellion is not merely the breaking of God's Law, but moreso the breaking of God's heart. Nevertheless, God graciously extends the invitation to repentance in order for God's people to experience restoration.

We are called to weep with those who weep and bear each other's burdens with wisdom. Walking with others in grief means presence, empathy, and sacrifice.

While lamenting is just one part of a multi-faceted journey in processing grief, for Christians, it is an essential part. In this passage, we see four major steps for engaging in the practice of lament: turn, complain, trust, and ask. As we engage in these steps of lament, we can begin to process our grief.

Grief is a natural and appropriate emotional response to the unavoidable losses we experience living in a fallen world. Grief will be expressed in different ways by different people with a variety of emotional, physical, cognitive, and behavioral indicators. Often, we attempt to resist dealing with our grief because it is painful to do so, but that leads to the unhealthy alternatives of avoidance, anger, and addictions. The better way forward is to face our grief, because in doing so, by God's grace, we will grow in freedom, wisdom, resilience, compassion, and joy.