Selections from 1 Timothy 5

Support widows who are genuinely widows. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, they should learn to practice their religion toward their own family first and to repay their parents, for this pleases God. The real widow, left all alone, has put her hope in God and continues night and day in her petitions and prayers; however, she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. Command this, so that they won't be blamed. Now if anyone does not provide for his own relatives, and especially for his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

It's comforting to know that whatever we face in life, many more have already felt the same pain and asked the same questions. But even more comforting is knowing that God has left no one out of his plan. His Word reveals his love for us in every season of life. When you're young, and the thought of death sneaks into a mind crowded with places to go and people to meet, you wonder how anybody faces up to it. But when death has already found its way to your house, you start to be less afraid of its frightening glare. You still consider life a gift from God, but there's a gleam of grace in death's eye you never saw before not a morbid longing to die but a freedom to live unafraid of its shadow, because the treasure that awaits you reuniting with your lifelong mate just got more valuable.

When a woman loses her husband, God then makes a personal commitment to protect her himself. It is a comforting, beautiful assurance to know that an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient God is watching tenderly over the widow, providing for her physical needs, guarding against dangers to her, and faithfully directing her life. The LORD ... keeps the widow's boundaries intact (Proverbs 15:25, NIV). This verse is an awesome testimony to the responsibility the Lord accepts concerning the widow. It is as if God places an invisible wall around the widow. But how can a widow secure this divine protection and special blessing? The widow who wants his protective care must consecrate or set herself apart to the Lord. Through her own faith and commitment, she steps within the boundaries of God's protective area. This commitment to the Lord moves her away from vulnerability to Satan's favorite assault against widows (self-pity, idleness, uselessness, and despair) and opens her to a new assignment from God in ministry.  Dorothy Kelley Patterson

No one can know the depths of a widow's sorrow.  But whatever heartache we offer up to God, He will tenper it with usefulness and make us a blessing beyond our years.