Healing Broken Hearts

We often limit the importance of healing to restoring physical bodies and easing troubled minds, but Jesus also came to heal broken hearts. Without diminishing the need for the first two, may we also not ignore the last one.

Several years ago, a young hockey player, who we knew very well, received a sharp blow to his chest by a fast-moving hockey puck. The impact instantly stopped his heart, depriving his brain of oxygen. At twenty-years of age and in his prime, he died.

We have all faced sudden blows that have caused damage to otherwise healthy hearts. Most of us, have never fully recovered. We all live with broken hearts — wounds of sorrow from the death of a loved one, wounds of rejection or betrayal, wounds of abandonment or separation. Brokenness results mainly from harmful things done to us or unmet needs which others failed to offer us.

There is good news, however. Jesus came to heal the broken hearted.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he has anointed me to be hope for the poor, healing for the brokenhearted, and new eyes for the blind, and to preach to prisoners, ‘You are set free!’ I have come to share the message of Jubilee, for the time of God’s great acceptance has begun.”
Luke 4:18 TPT

Brokenness

Out of brokenness we hide, self-protect, and live artificial lives. We adjust, improvise, and normalize what Jesus desires to heal. Many of us adapt to our fragmented condition, emotionally pushing people away while pacifying our pain through addictions or other artificial means. But God loves us too much to leave us in permanent denial and pain.

Luke records Jesus reading from the scroll of Isaiah, making this declaration about Himself.

” … He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted …”
Isaiah 61:1

The Hebrew words Isaiah used here mean “to wrap firmly the break, or to stop the breaking in pieces.” Jesus intends to do for us what we cannot accomplish through self-effort.. He came to wrap our broken hearts with His healing love and to stop them from breaking.

Using the same words as Isaiah, the psalmist understood this deeply personal ministry of God’s restorative love.

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
Psalm 147:3

“Praise the Lord,” the psalmist says, “God heals. He has the cure! He mends even the deepest recesses of our being, bringing us to complete wholeness.”

Closer Than You Think

As I flip through the tattered pages of my life, I now see what I missed then — God’s consistent nearness. In my brokenness, feeling distant from Him, He came close. Like a skilled surgeon, He gently and compassionately removed each numbed layer of scar tissue, softening my heart little by little and bit by bit.

Over an extended period of time, I prayed for God to soften my heart. He did. He does. And He continues to do His miraculous healing.

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”
Psalm 34:18

We can all identify, at a certain level, with broken hearts and crushed spirits. Jesus Christ, our hope and our help, comes low to where we are. He bends down to our level and breathes life, restoring and renewing.

God Speaks

Through the Bible and by His Spirit, God speaks His message of hope and assurance to each of us.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
John 14:27

Today, let’s welcome the peace He offers. Whatever the “trouble” imposed upon us, today let’s choose to yield it to Jesus and welcome His healing. Perhaps, we will need to seek the help of a pastor or Christian counsellor. Often, the healing of broken hearts requires a process (similar to mine) of allowing God to expose and mend hearts — piece by piece and little by little.

But that process can begin right now through prayer. The sudden impacts we have endured don’t need to rob us of life, love, and hope. Jesus came to heal and restore no matter how deep the blow or how extensive the damage to our broken hearts.

“Lord Jesus, I recognize areas of brokenness in my inability to love as You love. I confess that I find it difficult to live honestly and openly before others because of my broken heart. As I acknowledge my need for healing, I welcome You to come and touch those deep fragmented areas of my heart. I ask You to reverse every level of brokenness and restore wholeness. Please soften the layers where I have become calloused and uncaring. Mend and heal every area where I have been crushed in spirit so that I may live fully and freely. Thank You, Lord Jesus for beginning to heal my broken heart. Amen.”

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