If I were to ask you whether your heart was ever broken I am sure many hands would go up. We are human beings therefore we are prone to get hurt sometimes so badly especially by those whom we trust and love. My heart was broken twice in the past. Our heart is the most fragile and precious commodity that we possess, both at a physical level and spiritual level. We know that any damage to the heart signifies the end of life, but with early diagnosis and timely intervention we can help prevent or even cure a physical heart. How about the unseen heart? Last week we learned that the scripture attributed to the heart: thoughts, reasoning’s, understanding, will, judgment, affections, and emotions. How can we deal with its brokenness? This is called clinically Stress Cardiomyopathy, theologically Shattered heart and colloquially “A Broken heart”. In one sense this is much harder to deal with because the pain of a broken heart can remain for the rest of our lives unless it is properly healed.
Psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, and counselors including pastors grapple with the dilemma of helping the brokenhearted. Some churches ignore this crucial subject yet the bible deals with it so emphatically and empathetically. As a pastor I can not ignore the fact that some of us hurt and some badly hurt in the congregation, therefore I would like to discuss what causes our hearts to break, how we can regain the broken trust, and God’s remedy for a broken heart.
I. WHAT CAUSES A HEART TO BREAK?
There could be a number of reasons why some one’s heart breaks. Some reasons could be betrayal of trust, loss of dreams, loosing a loved one, failure of expectations, abuse in a relationship, slander etc. Let me begin with perhaps the biggest cause for a broken heart, the betrayal of trust. It is when a person whom you have trusted the most betrays your confidence.
We read in Proverbs 25:9 “Do not betray another man’s confidence” obviously when this does happen it is devastating.. If you feel the pain of betrayal by people take heart, you are not alone, there have been many who have gone through or are going through the same experience. Here are a few biblical examples of those who experienced betrayal.
Joseph shared his dreams to his brothers and father. Instead of rejoicing with him they held grudge against him and eventually sold him as a slave. Later on Joseph was put in a prison for no reason and forgotten by every one for two whole years. Samson’s wife gave away the answer for the riddle fearing for her life and her family. Later on Delilah the woman he loved, enticed Samson and gave away the secret of his mighty strength to his enemies for 1100 pieces of silver. The result was humiliation, blindness and eventually the loss of his life.
Our Lord Jesus loved and ministered to the crowds but shared his personal lives with twelve close confidants. One of them was Judas Iscariot who for a bit of money betrayed his master to those who wanted to kill him. All these characters knew the pain of betrayal.
Betrayal of trust happens at all levels, but who can understand the agony and the pain of a wife or a husband who is abused or cheated by their spouse, a child molested by her own father, a high school student bullied by fellow school mates, an employee oppressed by an abusive boss, a young lover whose heart is crushed due to a broken relationship, a disillusioned congregation, due to a sex scandal of its pastor or some one in the leadership. All these incidents and many more can betray our trust and break our hearts. Betrayal is real, and very painful. The longer these hurts remain unhealed the longer the pain remains. When people break our trust we tend to think that God is also like men that can not be trusted. When a person’s trust is broken can it be ever regained? Can they enter into trusted and meaningful relationships again?
An unknown author said, “Trust is a fragile thing. Once earned, it affords us tremendous freedom. But once trust is lost, it can be impossible to recover. Of course the truth is, we never know who we can trust. Those we’re closest to can betray us, and total strangers can come to our rescue. In the end, most people decide to trust only themselves. It really is the simplest way to keep from getting burned.” It is true that when a person’s trust is broken it takes a long time if not forever before he could trust any one again but it is not entirely impossible. In the same way if one or a few persons betray your trust, doesn’t mean that you can not trust any one.
Whether or not you can ever trust people ever again, you can always trust God because he never makes a mistake moreover he never betrays his faithfulness. God said to Solomon, 2 Samuel 7: 13-15“I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men.” He goes on to say in Psalm 89: 33, but I will not take my love from him nor will I ever betray my faithfulness.” In the same way whenever we disobey him he may punish us but never withholds his love from us.
Most often when a person experiences emotional hurt the first thing that goes through their mind, where is God and if He is there why doesn’t He care? He seems a million miles faraway from the situation. Because of the fall of men we are quick to misunderstand God and quick to blame. The truth of the matter is that God hasn’t gone anywhere, neither can we go to a place where He doesn’t exist. The Psalmist in Psalm 139 understood both the complexities of men and the Omnipresence of God. “Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? To be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there, If I go underground, you’re there! If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon you would find me in a minute, you’re already there waiting!” I don’t know why for some unknown reasons we don’t feel God’s presence when we so badly need him but it doesn’t mean that He is not near us. The scriptures make it clear that he never leaves nor abandons us. The one who watches over us neither sleeps nor slumbers. Even more so when we are bruised and hurting he is always near us to heal and make us whole again. Let’s look at God’s heart towards the brokenhearted.
III GOD’S HEART TOWARDS THE BROKENHEARTED:
Some Christians are taught to believe that if you are a Christian everything should go well for you. You should never get ill, never be abused, never fail, always should be on top not on the bottom and so on. If something goes wrong their reasoning is that either you have sin in your life, not enough faith or the devil is attacking you. But the truth of the matter is life and faith doesn't always fit these neat little boxes. Can we agree that the meaning of suffering is largely a mystery to us and yet that we believe in a God of redemption who is far greater than our reasoning and our need to explain it all? God didn’t promise that the righteous will never suffer hardship and troubles, but he promised is special nearness and tenderness when we are hurting. Psalm 34:15-19 “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all” Therefore when some thing goes wrong let’ stop blaming ourselves, others and God, instead let’s recognize his ever abiding presence even in the midst of trouble and pain. The following popular poem explains his ever abiding presence though at times unseen.
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord
and across the sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints,
one belonged to me and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that many times along the path of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest
and saddest times in my life.
This really bothered me and I questioned the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
you would walk with me all the way,
but I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life
there is only one set of footprints.
"I don't understand why in times when I needed you most,
you should leave me."
The Lord replied, "My precious, precious child,
I love you and I would never, never leave you
during your times of trial and suffering.
"When you saw only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."
This poignant poem explains the heart of God towards a troubled and battered soul on the road of life’s journey. Are you like the person in the poem, battered, bruised and unable to stand up under the load of guilt and pain? Are you wondering is there any one who can truly understand and care for you? Let me introduce you to the healer of the brokenhearted. Psalm 147:3, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” His is Jehovah Rapha; God who heals. One of the functions of the prophesied messiah by the prophet Isaiah was, “to bind up the broken hearted (Isaiah 61:1) The Hebrew word for “bind” literally means, “to bind on, to wrap around, to bind up(a wound), to bandage, and to envelop, to enclose ” God is able to put a healing bandage on your bruised emotions, to wrap his presence around you. to envelop you with his love and to enclose you in a community where you will continue to receive his forgiveness, acceptance and see your healing completed.. You are safe in God’s loving arms.
No matter, how badly your heart is broken today you can come to Jesus who knows what exactly what you have gone through and what you are going through. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.. carried our sorrows, he was pierced for our transgressions,. and by his wounds you can receive healing to your broken heart. Next time we will look into how we can practically receive healing for our broken hearts. Amen.
