My heart is breaking…Why am I discouraged?
Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God!
I will praise him again –My Savior and my God!
Psalm 42:4-5 (NLT)
How can you mend a broken heart? How can you stop the rain from falling down? Do you remember those doleful lyrics from the Bee-Gees as they pondered that age-old question that never seems to find an answer?
There comes a time in everyone’s life when our hearts feel like they are breaking; loss, shattered hopes, broken dreams, a devastating diagnosis, crushed expectations. A broken heart hurts. A lot. Sometimes the pain can be so unbearable, we search for relief in all the wrong places. But there is only one fount of hope that can truly redeem our pain; God Himself.
In the midst of his suffering, the psalmist declares, “I will put my hope in God!” He understood he had a choice; brood and agonize over his loss over and over again or bring his sorrow to God surrendering his pain and heartache to the only One who can truly offer healing.
The psalmist placed his hope in God because he understood – grasped in a personal and practical way – God’s trustworthiness, His faithfulness, and His grace. He had been the recipient of God’s divine succor in the past and knew first-hand that the best remedy for a broken heart is to muse on what Scripture reveals about God’s character; as he pondered, his heart was strengthened by the truth that God never forsakes His own.
Spiritual hope hangs on amid trials, resting in God’s promise that one day the purpose of all of our joys and struggles will be revealed and we will experience that ultimate “aha!” moment. God will take each tear, each ache, and each sorrow, and weave it into a masterpiece. Then, like the psalmist, we will bow down before the LORD and cry out, “I will praise you, my Savior and my God.”
Thought: “The Lord will never waste our pain. He brings beauty out of brokenness and hope to our heartache.” – The Collingsworth Family, Redeemer of the Rain
For further reading:
- Psalm 34:18
- Psalm 37:7
- Psalm 119:49-50
- Psalm 142: 5-6
Excerpt from my devotional, A Year in God’s Classroom