Loss means change, change sometimes means pain

Everybody deals with loss in their life. No matter who you are all lose things in life
the things you loss in life that brings an impact on you emotionally. Like when someone you love passes away. Everybody deals with this kind of loss in their life. Money won’t make you immune to loss. Good looks won’t make you immune to loss. A high I.Q. won’t make you immune from loss. Nothing makes you immune to loss.

Loss means change, change sometimes means pain. Learning to deal with a loss means learning to cope with unwanted changes in your life. There are many LOSSES PEOPLE FACE IN LIFE…Death is only one example. You can never really cheat death. You will die one day. No one escapes this fact of life. “No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit, and no one has power in the day of death.” – Ecclesiastes 8:8 “…each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment.” – Hebrews 9:27

How do you deal with loss? What do you do when you’re facing a significant loss in your life? How do I handle it? As someone who believes in God and wants to follow Jesus, how will God help you get through it?

Steps in Dealing with a Major Loss: Look for God to replace your pain with a sense of gain. One of the toughest things about going through a major loss is the way it affects you emotionally. It can feel like someone kicked you in the stomach. Your world feels like it’s spinning out of control. You can feel helpless like a paper boat drifting on an ocean of sorrow.

The pain is real. But so is God. It’s in these low times of your life that you discover just how real God is. God specializes in replacing pain with gain. He loves to turn crucifixions into resurrections.

“O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you restored my health…You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy…” – Psalm 30:2, 11 David, who wrote this Psalm, was going through the painful loss of his health. Some of you know that pain. You live with chronic back pain, arthritis, and other issues that plague you and make your life difficult.

David said, “God turned his sorrow into joyful dancing.” David looked to God. It’s important that you look to God in the losing times of your life because He wants to replace your pain with a sense of gain.

How can you let God replace your pain with a sense of gain? •Ask God to erase painful memories. Your mind, the brain God gave you, is more powerful than the greatest computer. Your mind stores information at rates and speeds that far outpace the fastest computers today. And it’s because you have such incredible mind that you often suffer from memories that cause you pain.

If anyone knew about painful memories of loss, it was Joseph in the Old Testament. Joseph knew firsthand the pain of loss. Sold into slavery by his brothers, wrongfully accused of rape, sent to jail unjustly. Finally he was noticed by Pharoah. He had Loss after loss after loss.

Joseph was 17 when he was sold into slavery. He was 30 when he finally became Second in command to Pharoah. For 13 years, Joseph experienced loss after agonizing loss. One bad experience after another.

Yet, listen to what he says when his two sons were born. Joseph named his older son Manasseh, for he said, God has made me forget all my troubles Genesis 41:51

You say, “Is this really possible?” Joseph could remember what it was like when he was having the losses, because he says he had troubles. When Joseph says, “God made me forget” he’s talking about how he feels about his past. He’s not saying he actually can’t remember details of what happened. He’s saying, “When I do think about it, it doesn’t feel like it used to. The sting is gone. It feels like I’ve forgotten what it felt like.”God had taken away the pain of the losses he experienced.

And notice what God gave Joseph in its place. 52 Joseph named his second son Ephraim, for he said, “God has made me fruitful in this land of my grief.” – Genesis 41:52  God had replaced Joseph’s grief with a sense of gain. God had taken away the pain of those early memories and in their place put a satisfaction and appreciation for the blessings of the present. Joseph looked down at that little baby and all God had given to him and his mind stopped rehearsing the pain of his past. Now, he looked into the future and saw hope and God’s hand.

This is one of the ways God restores your losses. He erases the sting of painful memories. Ask God, pray and asked Him to erase your painful memories?