Broken Hearts

Oh, how can I give you up, Israel? How can I let you go? How can I destroy you like Admah or demolish you like Zwboim? My heart is torn within Me, and My compassion overflows." Hosea 11:8....He heals the brokenhearted, binding up their wounds. Psalm 147:3 We are a brokenhearted people pursued relentlessly by a brokenhearted God. I don't think the majority of us are really aware of this. Oh, we readily know about our own broken hearts, but we're mostly ignorant of His. I know personally the agony of a broken heart. A heart broken many times over. You do as well. It is a very great tragedy that so many of us never really have our broken hearts healed. They say time heals all wounds, but that's a lie the world came up with. All time does is cover over the wound with an ugly scab. The wound itself remains beneath that hardened scab, still causing great pain. Not just for the one whose heart is broken but for all those living closely with and to them. The world has a multitude of counselors whose offices are filled with people who come for healing, but in too many cases, never are. They just go on bleeding. And all the while, there is a brokenhearted God pursuing those broken hearts, longing to bind up their open wounds and heal them. In our suffering, the enemy seeks to convince us that the Lord either does not care about our suffering, or that He's powerless to help us. He's a liar, he's been very successful in convincing us of his lies. The reality is that we have a Father in heaven and a Savior in Jesus, whose hearts break with ours. They break over what has happened to us. They break over what our own choices and actions have done to us. This is seen in the exchange in Hosea with the Father speaking to His people, Israel. Their rebellion and insistence on their own way had brought about untold suffering for them. He weeps for His people and with them. He does so with us as well. In some of my deepest sufferings, I often had the sense of His being right there, holding me to Himself, and weeping with me, as well as for me. I have no biblical proof of this, but I believe that there is healing for us in His tears. Our tears may bring us emotional release, but I think that somehow, His tears poured out for us and on us, bring forth His healing....if we'll have it. If you have or are walking the road of the brokenhearted today, know that you are not alone. The God of the broken heart pursues you with His own broken heart. No matter how you got to this place, He pursues you with healing in His hands and in His words. Bring your wounds to Him. All of them. Lay them at His feet. Lay yourself at His feet. Let Him do what only He can do. Heal what is broken. Heal what you might believe is broken beyond repair. The God of the brokenhearted walks with you with His own broken heart. He offers His healing and the binding up of all of your wounds. Won't you receive Him? Blessings, Pastor O