Moving Beyond Sadness

As we said last time, it’s normal to feel sad sometimes and fortunately for us, God is with us, noticing our sadness, and ready to help us find comfort and healing. 

The first thing we have to do, though, is often one of the most challenging.  We have to admit we are sad, instead of trying to cover it up, and we have to call out to Jesus for help. 

Give all your worries to God because He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

We must turn our situation over to Jesus and receive comfort, companionship, strength, help, support AND guidance.  We need to be willing to hear and learn from what God will surely share with us.  (

Jesus said:  Come to me all of you who are tired from the heavy burden you have been forced to carry. I will give you rest. Accept my teaching. Learn from me. I am gentle and humble in spirit. And you will be able to get some rest. Matthew 11:28-29

Sometimes that means we will need to face our own mistakes and the consequences that followed from that.  God already knows and stands ready to forgive and help us to find a way to reconciliation

For me, one of the most helpful ways to move beyond sadness is to begin to say words that plant seeds of joy in my heart – affirmations from the Bible, gratitude, prayer etc.  It never works to tell ourselves to not be sad about something because every time we think of that “something” we are reminding ourselves of the pain.  We have to ignore that and substitute comforting truths into those thoughts and feelings.

Here are just a few words from Psalm 103 as a starter.  You can make your own list of helpful affirmations.

My soul, praise the Lord and never forget how kind he is! He forgives all our sins and heals all our sicknesses. He saves us from the grave, and he gives us love and compassion. He gives us plenty of good things. He makes us young again, like an eagle that grows new feathers. The Lord does what is fair.   He brings justice to all who have been hurt by others. The Lord is kind and merciful. He is patient and full of love. He never criticizes. He does not stay angry with us forever. Psalm 103:2-6, 8-9

And so Loving God, help us to do our part in cooperating with you so You can move us beyond our sadness.  Help us to be honest and just face the fact that we are sad.  We may know the reason why and we may not.  You do and You invite us to come for rest and for instruction so we can move into a new space.  Give us willingness to surrender our will and our circumstances into Your care. 

You promised us that we would find freedom when we lived in truth so help us to speak truth to our own hearts and minds and let that lead us to a better place.  Help us to do that today.   You know us. You care about us.  You are with us to help us.  We are grateful.  Amen

Let’s give our sadness to God and let Him lift us up to a place of peace, and maybe even joy.