Promise for Today - Blessing the Broken

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted, and he saves those whose spirits have been crushed.

Psalm 34:18 (NCV)

You don’t just "get over" a loss. You can’t go under it; you can’t go around it. You’ve got to go through the grief. And if you’re scared to express emotion and refuse to go through it, you just get stuck.

You get unstuck by letting God help you. Here are six ways God blesses a broken heart.

1. God draws you close to himself.
Psalm 34:18 says, “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted, and he saves those whose spirits have been crushed” (NCV). When you grieve, God is not a million miles away, even though it may feel like it. In fact, he’s never been any closer.

2. God grieves with you.
The Bible tells us that Jesus was “a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief” (Isaiah 53:3 NLT). When you come to Jesus with your grief, he knows what you’re talking about, and he understands your pain. God is not apathetic. He is sympathetic, and he grieves with you.

3. God gives you a church family for support.
We’re meant to grieve and heal in community. We’re better together! The Bible says, “In Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. . . . Be devoted to one another in love. . . . Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:5, 10, 15 NIV).

4. God uses grief to help you grow.
God uses grief and pain to help you become more like Christ, and he does it in three ways:
God uses pain to get your attention (Romans 5:3-5), he brings good out of bad (Romans 8:28), and he prepares you for eternity (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

5. God gives you the hope of heaven.
Your life on earth is short, but if you trust Jesus Christ for your salvation, then you have the hope of spending eternity in heaven with God. That hope will sustain you through your time of loss. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 4:13, “We don’t want you to be ignorant about those who have died. We don’t want you to grieve like other people who have no hope” (GW).

6. God uses your pain to help others.
This is called redemptive pain, and it is the highest and best use of the pain you go through. God does not want you to waste a hurt. “[God] comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us” (2 Corinthians 1:4 NLT).

Talk It Over

Why do you think God has allowed you to experience grief and loss?

How does God want you to minister to others who grieve without hope?

What is the deepest pain you have experienced? In what ways can you use that pain to help others?

- by Pastor Rick

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Prayer:

Father, 

         We ask You for a fresh vision of what breakthrough will look like in our lives. Help us to pursue healing while we wait for Your miracle. Show us how to rest right in the middle of the storm. Help us to enjoy the feast You prepare for us, right in the middle of the battlefield. We want our whole life to testify that there’s a God in heaven who knows our names and who will get us safely home. Fill us afresh with the wonder of Your love and power. We are determined to win this battle by Your Grace. Help us to discern when to rest, when to feast, and how to actively engage our faith as we wait for You to break through. May our lives display Your power and Truth. Do the impossible in and through us, in Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Repeating a Few Words of My Own

"See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end."
Hebrews 3:12-14 NIV

I want to go on record declaring I am a believer and follower of Jesus Christ and His gospel. I have a strong faith. I believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God and the standard by which we are to live. I believe that we will live eternally somewhere and that both heaven and hell are real.

So, I have hope in the Lord. It's hope - not born of desperation, but rather of relationship - knowing in Whom I have believed and having been witness to His mighty works and amazing grace. I truly believe that God is good even when I don't understand the dark times. Let the believers say "Amen!" We miss them when we lose loved ones... but if they had chosen Jesus as their Savior, we WILL see them again. I know this because it's written in God's Word.

1st Thessalonians 4:13-18 NLT, "And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words."

Prayer:

Father,
            The heavens declare Your glory and I? I can only attempt to echo their praise. Thank You for Your grace and for salvation and for Your mercy, and help us to try to fathom the depth of Your great love...even in the dark times. May the many seeds bring about a great harvest, O God! In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen