Comfort · 10 days
Hope in Grief
God weeps with you and doesn’t leave you alone.
Who it’s for
10 days with John 11, the Psalms and Lamentations to walk through loss with God.
- Grief and comfort — Company for the days of longing and pain.
What you’ll grow in
How the journey is organized
Week 1 · Weeping before God
Questions, tears and bitterness also have a place in prayer.
- Day 1If only you had been hereJohn 11:21
- Day 2Jesus weptJohn 11:35Available in the app
- Day 3Tears for foodPsalms 42:3Available in the app
- Day 4Call me MaraRuth 1:20Available in the app
- Day 5New every morningLamentations 3:22-23Available in the app
Week 2 · The hope that sustains
The Shepherd in the valley, our numbered days, and the promise that every tear will be wiped away.
- Day 6The valley and the ShepherdPsalms 23:4Available in the app
- Day 7Counting our daysPsalms 90:12Available in the app
- Day 8Grief with hope1 Thessalonians 4:13Available in the app
- Day 9Many homesJohn 14:2Available in the app
- Day 10Every tearRevelation 21:4Available in the app
Day 1 · If only you had been here
Today’s reading: John 11:17-27
17So when Jesus came, he found that he had been in the tomb four days already. 18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away. 19Many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. 20Then when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary stayed in the house. 21Therefore Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. 22Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” 23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. 26Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.”
John 11:17-27 · World English Bible
Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.
Context
Bethany was about fifteen stadia from Jerusalem, a little under two miles. Lazarus and his sisters, Martha and Mary, were close friends of Jesus (John 11:5). When he heard that Lazarus was sick, Jesus still stayed two more days where he was (11:6). By the time he arrived, his friend had been in the tomb for four days. By Jewish custom, relatives and neighbors visited a grieving family during the first days to comfort them, which is why the house was full.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him. And the first thing she said wasn’t praise or a beautiful prayer. It was a sentence almost every grieving person knows: “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” It’s the sentence of “if.” If he had come sooner. If I had noticed. If the doctor had seen it. If I had called that day.
Grief often comes full of “ifs.” The mind goes back to the past, trying to find the moment when everything could have been different. Sometimes guilt shows up, sometimes anger, sometimes both at once. Martha said out loud, before Jesus, what was in her heart. And Jesus didn’t rebuke her. He didn’t say she was doubting, or that she needed more faith. He stayed and talked with her.
In that same conversation, Martha shows that pain and faith can live side by side: “Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” She didn’t understand why Jesus had taken so long, but she kept trusting him. Faith, in grief, isn’t always calm certainty. Sometimes it’s simply continuing to talk to God while the question stays open.
Then Jesus says one of the most important sentences in the Bible: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.” Notice that he doesn’t offer an explanation for the delay. He offers himself. The answer to death isn’t a theory; it’s a Person. Christian hope doesn’t begin with “why,” but with who Jesus is.
Jesus would soon bring Lazarus back to life, but that was a sign, not a promise that every loved one will come back now. Lazarus himself would die again years later. The sign pointed to something greater: the resurrection at the last day, which Martha spoke of, and the life that begins in Christ and that death cannot interrupt.
Over the next ten days, you will walk through grief with the Bible open. There’s no deadline for the pain to pass, and no right way to feel. You can come with your questions, with your “ifs,” with how much you miss them. Today, begin like Martha: run to Jesus and tell him, in your own words, what is going on inside you.
To reflect onWhat is the “if” that has kept coming back to your mind since the loss?
To live it today
- Write down, just for you and God, the sentence that has kept coming back to your heart since the loss, even if it’s a question or a complaint. Read it out loud before God, as Martha did.
- Grief can bring very dark days. If you ever feel you don’t want to live anymore, call or text 988 (US), 116 123 (UK & Ireland, Samaritans) or your local emergency number. Reach out to your pastor or someone you trust as well, and don’t go through these days alone.
More questions
- What are you afraid to say to God about your loss?
- Who else is grieving the same person and might need a visit or a call from you this week?
Prayer
Praise
Lord Jesus, you are the resurrection and the life. Death doesn’t have the last word before you. You listened to Martha without hurrying, and you listen to me too.
Surrender
I give you my “ifs,” the questions with no answers, the guilt and the anger that sometimes rise up. I don’t know how to deal with all of this, and I don’t need to pretend that I do.
Petition
Stay with me in these days. Hold up my faith even when it is small, and surround with care everyone who is mourning the same loss as I am.
To memorize
I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
Read also: John 11:5-6 · 1 Corinthians 15:26 · Psalms 116:1-2
Continue in the app: days 2 to 10
Each day brings a reading, a devotional, a guided prayer, a journal question and a verse to memorize. Pick up where you left off.
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For your everyday
Scripture on this page: World English Bible (public domain). How we write the journeys