“When you are happy…if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise,

you will be –or so it feels – welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is

desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face,

and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside.

After that, silence. You may as well turn away.”

C. S. Lewis

“Grief is the intense emotional response to the pain of a loss. It is

the reflection of a connection that has been broken. Most

important, grief is an emotional, spiritual and psychological

journey to healing.”Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Five Stages of Loss

1. Denial – “This can’t be!”

2. Anger – “Who’s to blame!”

3. Bargaining – “What if…?”

4. Depression – “Why go on?”

5. Acceptance – “It is what it is.”

“Normal depression is the sadness we feel at

certain times in our lives, the common cold of

mental illness…We must accept sadness as an appropriate, natural stage of loss without

letting an unmanaged, ongoing depression leech

our quality of life.”Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Genesis 28:13-15“There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Genesis 28:16-17“When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

Job 3:25-26

“What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded

has happened to me. I have no peace, no

quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.”

“Everything is Against Me!”1.  Forgetting the power

and promises of God leads to hopelessness.

“Every area of your life that doesn’t

glisten with hope means you’re

believing a lie and that area is a

stronghold of the Devil in your life.”

Francis Frangipane

2 Peter 1:3-4“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

El Shaddai in Genesis17:1 – “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.”28:3 – Isaac to Jacob: “May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.”35:11 – “And God said to him (Jacob), “I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body.”

God AlmightyEl Shaddai

“Shaddai evokes the idea that God is able to make the barren

fertile and to fulfill his promises.”

Gordon Wenham

“Everything is Against Me!”1.  Forgetting the power

and promises of God leads to hopelessness.

2. A risky step of faith is necessary to move back toward hope.

“Jacob's blessing given in Genesis 49:25, however, indicates that

Shaddai might be related to the word for breasts (shadaim), indicating sufficiency and

nourishment (i.e., "blessings of the breasts and of the womb.”)In this case, the Name might derive

from the contraction of sha ("who") and dai ("enough") to

indicate God's complete sufficiency to nurture the

fledgling nation into fruitfulness.”John J. Parsons

“Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered. There was no one there.”Martin Luther King Jr.

“If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed.  If you look within, you’ll be depressed.  If you look at God, you’ll be at rest.”Corrie Ten Boom