Has the person you love, more than anything in the world, left you? Did the two of you break up? Have you been dumped, slighted, walked out on, or deserted for another? Does your heart ache and ache endlessly? Have you lost sleep, your appetite, or even your job? Are you caught in the grief? Do you rehash over and over again, the breakup?
O my friends, I cannot reach across the Internet to give you my hand; but will you think that I am doing it, for I wish to do it? Come hither, all that are burdened, all that labour and are heavy laden; come hither, all that sorrow, be your sorrow what it may; come hither, all whose hearts are broken, be the heart-break what it may, for He healeth the broken in heart.
We all need encouragement from time to time. Sometimes, like David, we just need to "command" our own soul to "be encouraged." However, at times we need a little help outside of ourselves. This may be in simply spending time with God, or in His Word. At other times, what we really need is a shoulder to cry on. We "comfort others with the comfort wherewith we ourselves have been comforted of God," Paul says. And "the hand cannot say to the foot, I have no need of thee." We need each other. Thus, God has provided for all our needs in:: (1) Scripture; (2) prayer; and (3) the Body of Christ
Often as we have read this Psalm, "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." Psalm 147:3, we can never fail to be struck with the connection in which this verse stands, especially its connection with the verse that follows. Read the two together: "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names." What condescension and grandeur! What pity and omnipotence! He who leads out yonder ponderous orbs in almost immeasurable orbits, nevertheless, is the Surgeon of men's souls, and stoops over broken hearts, and with his own tender fingers closes up the gaping wound, and binds it with the ointment of love. Think of it; and if I should not speak as well as I could desire, yet help me by your own thoughts to do reverence to the Maker of the stars, who is, at the same time, the Physician for broken hearts and wounded spirits.
There are many sorts of broken hearts, and Christ is good at healing them all. The patients of the great Physician are those whose hearts are broken through sorrow, Hearts broken through disappointment, Hearts broken through bereavement, or Hearts that are broken in ten thousand ways, for this is a heart-breaking world; and Christ is good at healing all manner of heart-breaks. I would encourage every person here, even though his or her heart-break may not be of a spiritual kind, to make an supplication to him who heals the broken in heart.
Daughters of sorrow, sons of grief, look here! Jesus Christ has gone on healing broken hearts for thousands of years, and he is well up in the business. He understands it by experience, as well as by education. He is "mighty to save." Consider him; and the Lord grant you grace to come and trust him even now! Thus I have talked to you about the Physician for broken hearts; shall I tell you what his chief medicine is? It is his own flesh and blood. There is no cure like it. "With his stripes we are healed," and with no medicine but this atoning sacrifice. A wonderful heal-all is this, when the Holy Ghost applies it with his own divine power, and lets life and love come streaming into the heart that was ready to bleed to death.
We are not called to a life that is free of problems; we are not meant to be bowed down by them or to be subject to anxiety or stress, but by the grace of God we can all be overcomers. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
'Bear one another's burdens," Paul exhorts the body of believers. None of us is in this alone. 'The hand cannot say to the foot, I have no need of you.' There is a great need for encouragement in the Body of Christ. He distributes the gifts "severally," our gifts varying. And the gift we have is not for ourselves, but for the body. If you are depressed or feeling alone, reach out to someone else in need. Your own lack will soon be forgotten.
