Closure

Stand Still - Go Forward

    "Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God."   Job 37:14

     1. Closure  Have you thought about the Bible being full of closures... not just moving "rite on" and leaving the past behind. The past is history, and the future is a mystery, that's why today is the present.  Hold on to faith, hope, love.

a) "And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite,"  Gen 25:9 (NKJV)

     Both Isaac and Ishmael celebrated Abraham in his burial.  Death often puts an end to strife and reconciles enemies.  This funeral brought closure to their conflict.

    b) Illness.

O Lord, how can I move on?

I don't see any open door.

I crawl through the valley of cancer.

I know YOU know the answer.

And the battle won't rattle me.

You're around, and I've found

there's something about Your empathy,

Your symphony of sympathy

that comforts me.

You are with me.

YOU comfort me.

     (Rob Lacey, an English preacher-musician who wrote as he was dying from bladder cancer.)

     2. Moving On

     a) Many of God's people are not schooled in the art of moving on. We spend a lot of our time stuck, not able to move beyond what happened yesterday.

     "Now the Lord said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons."  1 Sam 16:1 (NKJV)

     God had decreed a new king.  This was of the greatest importance for the interests of the nation.  It would establish David's title and comfort the mind of Samuel and other good men with a right settlement, whatever things might happen.  Samuel had reached a place in his life from which he needed to move on.

     Like it or not, we all hit this type of place in our journey of faith.  Many of God’s people are not schooled in the art of moving on. We spend a lot of our time stuck, living in the past, never able to move beyond what happened yesterday. We’re unskilled at navigating new beginnings.

     3.  The Bible shows us that life is a succession of closures and new beginnings.

     God said to Abraham,  "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you."  Gen 12:1 (NKJV)

     We see this pattern demonstrated time and again in the lives of God’s choice servants.  They are required to let go of the old and step out in faith toward the new.

     4.  Closure is one of the great keys to moving forward in life.               When we don’t understand its importance, we often get stuck in our yesterdays or simply grow comfortable with the way things are.  “You played your best.  The game is over.  Time to go home.”

     It is foolish on our part to believe that nothing in life will ever change. Everything changes! Our characters develop, our personalities blossom, our attitudes change, and unfortunately, our bodies grow older.

     The definition of the word “closure” is “to bring something to a close; to bring to an end, to resolve and finalize it in your thinking, to move beyond.” It’s the act of resolving to let something go. Most often, closure is a decision; it’s an act of the human will. Sometimes it is easy, at other times grueling. More often than not, it is purely an act of faith; ACT and feelings catch up with you later.

     Many who are struggling with a decision to move on in life will battle day in and day out with the turmoil of weighing the pros and cons of life’s decisions. Uncomfortable, but actually a part of the process of life.  It forces us to fully examine our decisions in light of good judgment. Is it possible the Lord is saying to you, “You have mourned long enough”? Could it be that you need closure in an area of your life?

PRAYER at Graveside:

     Almighty God, through the death of Christ Jesus on the cross, You have overcome death for us.  Through His burial and resurrection from the dead You have made the grave a holy place.  You sent Christ Jesus so that the world might be saved.

     In Jesus, who rose from the dead, our hope dawned of being raised to life at the end of the world.  Our great sadness of death gives way to the bright promise of eternal life. Lord, because of You, life is changed, but not ended.  When this body of our earthly dwelling lies in death, we hope for an everlasting dwelling with You in heaven.

     Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might; heaven and earth are full of Your glory. We come to You, Father, with praise and thanksgiving, through Your Son Jesus Christ.

     Our Lord Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.  And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.  Do you believe this?  She said to Him, Yes Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”