So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.
John 16:22
During 2026, Peachtree Church is inviting everyone into Cultivate, a churchwide discipleship plan centered on the fruit of the Spirit and the kind of life God longs to grow in us. Throughout the year, we’ll explore how love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control take shape in everyday life through the Spirit’s work. Cultivate brings together worship, Scripture, group guides, and meaningful practices designed to meet you where you are and support growth in ways that fit your season. These twice-weekly devotionals are one way to stay connected, offering reflection and grounding for daily life with God. Whether you engage in many ways or just one, you’re invited to be part of this shared journey of becoming more rooted in who God has created and called you to be.
Devotional
I can only imagine what it must have felt like for the disciples in that moment, gathered around the table as Jesus taught them during one of the most important meals of the year, and he said, “Now is your time of grief.” During my ministry at Peachtree, I’ve spent a good bit of time with people during their times of grief. It is something that many of us don’t understand until we’ve experienced it, but grief is not something that only occurs after we have seen the death of those whom we love. While we watch someone we care for declining through a long illness, we grieve. When we hear the words of a diagnosis that we have dreaded, we grieve. When we are told by someone we love that it is over, we grieve. But rarely are we ever told, “Now is your time of grief.”
There have been moments when I’ve wished that I had heard Jesus whisper those words to me, much less hear him speak them loudly and clearly to me. It’s simply been that no matter how much I’ve been prepared for the different experiences of loss, the grief always comes out of left field, for nothing can truly prepare us for it. But it isn’t those words that are the ones that we need to hear the most, but the second two-thirds of that sentence, “but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”
Even as we walk through a season of loss, we have Jesus walking beside us, trying to help us to see his face. He wants us to remember that through him we can rejoice always. He wants us to know that while we walk through times of grief, we always do so with the reminder of his resurrection and of our own that will come. His words do not take away our grief, but they do remind us of our joy, which will be without end.
For Reflection
- What has helped you most during a season of grief?
- Where have you been able to see joy in the midst of those difficult times?
Prayer
Lord, through the power of the cross and the resurrection, you will turn our weeping into praise. You call us to see joy even in times of grief. Surround us in your arms of love and point our hearts and minds towards the joy that comes from you, the joy that shall never cease. In Christ’s name we pray; amen.
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Devotionals