Worship — even in grief

"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

Today God prompts us to attend the funeral of a young man we have never met. While I understand our presence is to support the living, what can we offer a family filled with grief? We want to share their pain, but how can we even understand such sorrow, never mind comfort them?

The Lord directs me to the Old Testament book of Job. This man lost his wealth and his children. When he hears the news, his grief is intense, but “Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped.”

How can that happen? How can a man whose children were all taken from him in one freakish storm worship God?

Then Job’s friends came to comfort him. At first they sat in silence. Then, when they could no longer stand the pain, they tried to explain it. Their reasoning assumed that Job had sinned, therefore he brought this disaster on himself. How hurtful! They were wrong and God later told them so, but their ‘comfort’ only increased Job’s pain. Yet in his pain, he continued to worship God.

There is a lesson from the action of Job’s friends that echos my grandmother’s wisdom: “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all,” but God is telling me more. He is saying, “Today, be more like Job.”

Job felt the pain, and worshiped God — at the same time. That is beyond me. How can I do that? Charnock says, “Spiritual worship is done by the influence and with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. The fire that kindles our affections must come from heaven.” Jesus Christ adds, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.”

So today He is asking me to go this funeral filled with His Spirit, depending on Him. Without Him, I am weak and unable to comfort anyone, but He is asking even more than that. Even though I’m horribly aware that today, in my natural self, worship will be impossible, still God asks me to worship Him.