Healing the Broken Heart

When our hearts are hurting, it is very easy to feel that we will never feel better. Hurts can pile upon hurts, when the people that we love and trust, are the ones that hurt us the most. Satan wants us to think that this is a permanent situation. But for those of us who love and trust God, however, this is only temporary.

It says in Isaiah 53:5 that, “He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” The answer to healing all of our hurts is in Jesus. Jesus died on the cross for all of the things that hurt and break our hearts. He did even more than that for us; He promised that, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you a heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26) The heart of flesh that the Lord wants us to have is His very own heart.

Even before the Lord gives us His heart, though, He has to prepare our own. Let us imagine that our hearts are a room, but this room is cluttered, dirty, and dark. The Lord does not cause, but rather, allows pain and misfortune to cause us to want to throw out the clutter in our hearts. Often, there are things in our heart that we value more than the Lord. This could be people, possessions, or maybe even certain sins that we have not yet given over to Him. These things are like idols in our lives which grieve the heart of the Lord. As it says in Genesis 6:6, “The Lord was grieved that He had made a man on earth, and His heart was filled with pain.” These idols produce decay and death in our hearts, and kill our ability to love others.

God also uses our broken hearts as a way of calling out to us, and encouraging us to come and be with Him. If we could imagine, for example, having a strong radio or TV message tugging at our hearts. We could think of our painful and broken hearts being like a big invitation from God to come and spend time with Him. It would have a big key in the lock to open the storehouses of Heaven.

Allowing God to take the place of our idols is like having a big construction company working in our hearts. Have we been visited by the Holy Spirit Construction Company? This company specializes in fixing broken rooms in our hearts. They repair broken dreams and make them into new ones. They widen the gates of our hearts, making more room for the Spirit of the Lord to come inside. The Holy Spirit Construction Company removes ceilings so that the love of Christ can be piled higher and deeper. The company even uses pain, abandonment, and misfortune to add new and bigger rooms to our hearts so that we can invite more people inside.

Now we may be asking ourselves, °How does the Holy Spirit repair our hearts? How can we, the people of the Lord, make ourselves ready for this healing?” A good start would be asking the Holy Spirit to show us what is wrong with our hearts. Sometimes we think that we know what is wrong, but we are like doctors working on the wrong diagnosis. When we do not ask the Holy Spirit to help us, we can even take the wrong medicine! Here are some questions that we can (honestly) ask ourselves:

Do we need to forgive someone for breaking our hearts? Have we forgiven over and over again, as often as it takes? Have we recognized that people, possessions, or activities have become more important than the Lord? Have we decided to repent from these things (that is, turn away from doing them)? Have we asked Jesus to remove all the desires in our hearts that are not pleasing to Him, replacing them with His own? If we do not even feel that we can ask for any of these things mentioned, have we asked for the desire to want the things that God wants?

The main point is, then, that we need to ask the Lord to plant good seeds in our hearts (especially during these difficult times in our lives). What kinds of thoughts and deeds have we planted in the gardens of our souls today? Were they seeds of kind words and healthy thoughts? Did those same seeds of love bloom this week? Did the Lord visit the garden of our hearts this week, or did the Devil? It says in Luke 8:15, “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a good and noble heart. Whoever hears the Word and retains it, and by persevering produces a good crop!” We need to keep giving our hearts to the Lord again and again. For it says in Deuteronomy 4:29, “But if from these you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him. If you look for Him with all your heart and all your soul.”

So then, what exactly have we been looking for? Hopefully, our hearts are longing for, and looking to be filled with the love of Jesus. If we spend more time praising God and thinking about Him, then our hearts are in a better position to be healed. Praising God is the electric current that generates healing in our hearts. Do our hearts feel dead and dark? Have we made a decision to allow His light and life into our hearts? A key to receiving more of these things is giving away the love that Jesus has given to us to those around us. God will use even our smallest expression of love to heal our own hearts. The give-and-take approach to love will help us heal faster.

One of the best ways to prepare for the healing of our hearts is to guard them, you see, the Devil wants to steal our memories of the goodness of the Lord and the love expressed to us by our brothers and sisters. He wants to steal the tenderness, gentleness, kindness, and patience from our hearts. It says in Deuteronomy 4 9, “Only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live.”

Another point to ponder is that healing takes time. We should move forward with our heart work as we are given faith to do so. Trust and affection are things that take time to rebuild. The mercies of the Lord are new every morning, and we can use them, to allow the Lord to make our hearts all that He wants them to be. Loving others is always a risk, but life is also full of risk. It is the risk takers that will illuminate the new frontiers of the love of Jesus. In taking those risks, we will establish new fortresses of love, help to heal the sick, and stir up other miracles. A broken and healed heart, is a courageous heart, that shouts halleluiah to God. This is the heart that will embrace God and love again     

I will close with the words that Paul gave to the Philippians 4: 8-9 “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, If anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.  Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”
(Michael Carr, May 2025)