Posted on 07/11/2021 11:13:41 PM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad” (Proverbs 12:25).
“. . . but a good word maketh it glad.” I don't know what you think about that last phrase, “a good word maketh it glad.” I mean, that good word is not something petty, not just something flippant, or some kind of phony, “Well, You know it's going to be alright,” or “Oh! Don't you look pretty today.”
You know, when we think of encouragement these days, sometimes we are so stupidly superficial. What do you say to a saved man that has cancer? We know that he's Heaven bound. He served the Lord for years, and now he's getting eaten up inside with cancer. What can you say to him? “Hey! How are you doing?” I don’t think so. Well, you can say you are praying that the grace of God is real to him at this point. You can tell him that you are praying that the presence of the Lord is a real comfort to him. We are praying for him. We do care for you. We don't know what you're going through but we're trying. That kind of thing is something significant. It is something that matters. The “good word” is not vain words. The “good words” are not flippant words.
As we mentioned earlier, you hear at a funeral for lost people that “He's in a better place now.” They have no real hope for that. What is this better place you're talking about? It is just something to say. It is trivial. It is flippant. And it is certainly untrue. They have to have something to say, so they spew that out. It doesn't mean anything. It's not real hope. It's not real joy. It's not good words, it’s vain words. And it certainly doesn’t change the condition of the deceased person if that one did not receive Jesus Christ as his or her personal Saviour in life. They are not in a better place. I am sorry for that. Would to God it was different. But it is not.
We do not have vain words. We have a good word. We have the Bible, and this is the good word, and so whatever else is the case “a good word maketh it glad.” The word of God may indeed take somebody down a notch or two, it may humiliate to a certain point, but at the end when a sinner hits the bottom: The Bible preached offers hope. It's a good word. So, “Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.”
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You are so right about the trivial comments given usually by unbelievers themselves. It is very sad. I do the prayer list for the church and send prayer requests to prayer warriors via e-mail so I receive obituary notices from area funeral homes. It is so sad to read some of the comments posted by friends of the deceased . . especially when the deceased had no church affiliation or acknowledgement of faith. .. . however it could be that the families themselves didn’t see the need to include it in the obituary.
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