The Lord my husband

 

I found another lovely writing for widows by Octavius Winslow, 1870

THE LORD MY HUSBAND

"The Lord is my portion, says my soul"

"For your Maker is your husband--the Lord Almighty is his name--the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth." Isaiah 54:5

How many--appropriate to our circumstances, and endearing to our hearts--are the titles and relations of God! Is there one more sacred or precious to the Christian widow than this--"Your Maker is your HUSBAND." The Lord brings us into a gracious and experimental acquaintance with Himself by the circumstances in which He places us. Just as we learn certain lessons in certain schools, so we learn the relationships which the Lord sustains to us in the positions in life to which those divine relations are the most appropriate. Thus, He may have written you a widow, a "widow indeed," that He might stand to you in a new and more endeared relation--even as you stand to Him in a new and more dependent character--the relation of a HUSBAND--the character of a widow. As such He is your portion. Your bereavement is so crushing, your grief so profound, your desolation so vast, your loss so irreparable, the pen shrinks from even the attempt to describe it. The strong and beautiful staff is broken, the earthly counselor is perished, the tongue is mute that blessed you, the bosom cold that pillowed you, the eye dim that smiled upon you, and the whole landscape of life is draped in wintry coldness and gloom.

But the Lord is your Portion. "For your Maker is your husband--the Lord Almighty is his name." Divorced by death from an earthly husband, you are united more especially and closely to a Divine and heavenly Husband--even to God in Christ, who stands now in a new and more endeared relation to you, as you have now a new and more sacred claim upon Him. The widow is an object of His especial regard. No being has He more closely fenced, none for whom He has discovered more tender care. Listen to some of His touching injunctions respecting you. "You shall not afflict the WIDOW." "Plead for the WIDOW." "He will establish the border of the WIDOW." "He relieves the fatherless and the WIDOW." Such is the divine Portion, under whose sheltering wing you have now come to rest. "Your Maker is your HUSBAND." All, and infinitely more, that the fondest, most powerful, and faithful husband ever was, the Lord is to you. Let Him, as none other can, fill the vacant place. He can make even your solitary and desolate heart sing for joy. Espouse Christ afresh. Renew your 'first love' to Him, the love of your earliest union.

Trace nothing but love in the removal of a human object so dear; and know that love--divine, tender, unchangeable love--will guard, guide, and comfort you until wedded hearts, sundered by death, shall meet to renew a fellowship of love in the glorified presence of Jesus never to be sundered more.

Blessed Jesus! heavenly Husband! let me now be united only and forever to You! Give me Your Spirit to seal the sacred union. Enable me, as enjoined in the word, "to trust in God, and to continue in supplication and prayer night and day, to lodge strangers, to wash the saints' feet, to relieve the afflicted, and diligently to follow every good work" (1 Tim. 5:5, 10). And thus striving by Your grace to glorify You in the solemn character of a God-fearing, God-trusting widow, enable me to rejoice in You as my portion--my Husband--believing that You will shield me in temptation, supply me in need, comfort me in sorrow, be with me in death, and give me a place at the marriage-supper of the Lamb.

***

I’ve ordered two more books, one is Widow Directed to the Widows’ God by John Angell James, written in the 1800’s. The other is Postcards from the Widows’ Path by Ferree Hardy.

I read today that we are to look at widowhood as a ‘gift’ from God.

My heart has been lightened by things I’ve read in the past couple of days, after going through two days of breaking down into sobbing several times.

The Lord is my strength, He is my shield, He is my protector, He is my Savior. With Him I can do all things.

FlowerLady

Grief is like a roller coaster ride . . .

with highs and lows, but unlike a roller coaster, you cannot predict or see when the next up or down will be, you just have to go with the flow.

This morning I felt the heaviness coming over me, building up until it overflowed. I went out and sat on the bench under the bedroom window looking out into the main garden, taking in the birdsong and the gentle breezes and talking to Jesus, letting the tears flow and thanking him for his blessings and asking him again to be my strength and comfort. Every day is a day to be lived and gotten through as best one can. With God all things are possible, and He is our comfort and our strength.

When I was getting ready for work I stuck the little book ‘Come Away My Beloved’ by Frances J. Roberts into my bag. After I settled in here at work, I pulled it out to see what might speak to my heart at this time.  Here it is below.

******

One Day at a Time

O My child, hast thou known the way of the Lord, and canst thou trust Him now? Nothing shall befall thee but such as cometh from His hand. None shall set upon thee to hurt thee, for thy God hath built about thee a wall of fire.

Be content with what each day bringeth, rejoicing in thy God, for surely He it is who shall deliver thee and He it is who hath brought thee thither.

His way is discernable to the eye of faith. His heart is surely thy strong tower.  In His affection thou has security. In His love is thy hope and thy peace.

Do not question and do not doubt.  Each day holdeth some small joy that shall escape thee if thou art preoccupied with tomorrow.

Nothing daunts thy Father. Nothing can restore the past and nothing can bind the future, but today thou mayest live in the full blessing of the Father's smile. Hold to His Words, for they are as a nail driven in a sure place.  All else may seem shifting and non-permanent, but His Word is firm. It is a rock that shall not be moved.  It is a firm place to stand.

Do not walk in the path of human reason, and resist the pressures that would project thee into conjectures of the future. Live one day at a time! Suffice it to keep thee occupied simply striving to bring joy to the Father's heart. For ye know that He loveth  thee, and ye shall fine thy peace as thou resteth in Him. 

From ~ Come Away My Beloved by Frances J. Roberts. Published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.

One day at a time