Some Directions for Christians on How to Deal With the Death of a Loved One

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1. When you are sad, identify the particular reasons why your loved one's departure is making you sad. Then, reflect on the promises of God to believers that give comfort to you that is relevant to those reasons.

2. When you are angry, pour out your anger on sin, which brought the curse on man and the rest of creation, which curse robbed you of your loved one. Use your heartache to make you a hater of sin and lover of God, similar to how unbelievers and apostates use their heartaches to make themselves haters of God and lovers of sin. Be careful though that sin be the ONLY thing you pour out your anger on, so that you do not sin by pouring it out on God or your fellow man, His other images, and thereby arouse the anger of your only Hope against you!

3. This is related to Direction 1, but, when you are lonely, meditate, firstly, on the promises of God Himself to be your Companion, secondly, on God's promises to provide you companionship through your spiritual family in His Son, and, thirdly, if your loved one is a believer, on the promises of God to reunite you with your loved one for all eternity, never to be severed ever again. If your loved one is an unbeliever, meditate on the promises of God to make up for, and more than make up for, all the losses you will suffer in this life. Also, if your loved one is a believer, meditate on the fact that, though your loved one is away from you temporarily, you are united with that person in the bond of the Holy Spirit, a bond that even death cannot sever. Do not, in any way, communicate with your dead loved one (Deuteronomy 18:11-12), but instead talk with God about your loved one.

4. When you are tired, rest in the perfect work of salvation that Christ has accomplished for you.

5. When you are happy, remember the good times God gave you to enjoy with your loved one, knowing that it is a faint foretaste of the joy that God is preparing you for in eternity with Him. If your loved one is a believer, rejoice in the fact that God will restore that loved one and that person's company to you, granting you two the joy of loving Him for all eternity. If your loved one is an unbeliever, in the midst of your grief, rejoice in the fact that God will make up this loss to you in eternity (Revelation 21:4).

Reader, do you want to ensure the purely good eternity with Christ, and not the purely horrible eternity under God's wrath, is yours'? Then repent by taking your trust off wherever you have it placed right now and put your trust in Christ alone! This means putting your trust only in God's Word, the Bible, which is Christ's Word, since Christ is God (John 1:1-18; 2 Timothy 3:15-17). You must especially trust in the Gospel (or, "Good News") of what Christ has done to save you if you repent and believe on Him (read 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 for a summary, and then read the entire Book of Romans for an extensive, but simple and clear, explanation of the Gospel). For further information on Christianity and other kinds of help in seeking the Lord, I refer you to my church, the website of which I will link to here: https://fbcwttn.org/