Restoring A Broken Heart
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
(Psalm 51:10, 12)
It always amazes me how God uses the simplest things to get His point across to us. My daughter was watching my niece’s four children for a few days when she came down with the stomach flu. I went over immediately and had her go home so the children wouldn’t become sick. After only two days, I became sick with the stomach flu but had no choice but to remain and keep myself locked away in one of the bedrooms while still keeping an eye on the children. Thankfully the older children were of great help. My five year old niece came in to check on me one night and she said she was going to take care of me and had brought in a stethoscope that her mother had given to her. She proceeded to put it in her ears and listen to my heart. She then said “your heart is broken and needs love. A kiss from your husband will make it better!” She listened again and said “it’s a little better”. By the next morning, she came to me and listened to my heart again and said “nope, your heart is still broken. There’s no love left.” Her words hit me hard because I had been feeling a little loveless for a while and I believe God was letting me know exactly what my diagnosis was…a broken heart.
Many times we when we hear someone say they have a broken heart, we think of someone who was betrayed or hurt by another person they loved. Yet we never consider that our hearts can simply be broken, like anything that just stops working or working correctly. When we allow situations to affect us or allow negative, poisonous thoughts to fill our minds on a daily basis, it can eventually affect our hearts. A bad enough infection can cause our hearts to break and not work correctly anymore. This means because we allow poisonous thoughts to fill our minds regarding situations, other people, or things that just upset us, or we allow daily situations to affect us negatively, our hearts can break and the end result will be a heart that has no more love left in it. How will we know? We will become irritated more easily, our tone will change when we speak and negativity will become our attitude. No longer will we have a positive outlook on life but a negative one. We allow the busyness of life and the things of the world to consume our time and spend less time with God, reading the Bible and praying. Pretty soon all the love that was stored up is pushed out and negativity has moved in.
So how do we restore our heart back to what it once was or rather how do we fix our broken heart? We push aside everything that we allowed to come between us and God. We spend time with Him, in His Word and in prayer. And most importantly we apply His Word by showing love even if we may not feel like it. The more we show love, the more love will move back into our hearts. The more love that moves back into our hearts, the more our hearts are restored.
If your heart is broken, don’t be discouraged! It can be restored! We serve a powerful God who can fix, restore and put back together anything that has come apart.
But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
If you feel your heart is broken and love needs to be restored in your heart, take the time today to repent and then ask God to put the love back into your heart. Then each day spend time with God, reading and praying and applying the Word of God in your life. Begin showing love in different ways to others and in time, love will move back into your heart and your broken heart will be restored. It sounds to simple to even work, but many times we go searching for a big answer or solution when in fact the answer/solution is simple…if we just follow the directions.
Lord, I repent of allowing poisonous thoughts and daily situations to affect my mind and heart. Fix my broken heart Lord and restore it with love. Draw me close to You and help me to give love to others as you give love to me. Thank you, Jesus, for never leaving me nor forsaking me as Your Word proclaims. I ask this in Jesus name…Amen.