Go Ye #5

Go To The Brokenhearted

Last week we learned that we are to go to those who are destitute.  This includes those enduring temporal poverty, but also those who face spiritual, emotional and situational poverty.  God wants us to spread His good news of salvation to all in need.  That should be our top priority.  The next group of people are in just as much need of God as the first.  However, rather than being in trouble or distress, they are often already in a wasteland of despair.  How can we help them?

What does it mean to be broken in your heart?

The term brokenhearted means to be completely destroyed from the inside.  You are lost in darkness and despair.  In Christ's time, there were a lot of brokenhearted people.  They had lost loved ones due to wars, famine and strife and they had faced severe oppression from the Romans.  The were looking for someone, anyone to come and pull them out of their situation.  Someone to come and heal their wounds.  Some in their waiting had allowed bitterness and resentment to creep into what remained in their lives. They looked around at their loss and, with nothing appearing on the horizon, they lost hope. 

Today, there are a lot of people who are in a similar situation.  They may not be oppressed by a totalitarian regime, but they do feel oppressed by the weight of this world.  So many have faced loss in some are of their lives, too.  Whether its a loved one passing, divorce, being laid off from work, their children abandoning faith, or some other tragedy; people are filled with holes and wounds these days.  It's easy even today to look around at what you've lost and get mad and resentful, but just as in the days of Christ, their is an answer for those who are brokenhearted.

What can Christ do?

Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted.  The term heal here means to make whole.  Christ came to make those who were facing deep and hurting losses whole.  Those losses that had gone further than the circumstance.  They had cut deep into the soul and spirit of the individual.  Christ came to heal those deep pains, to stitch up the lives of the brokenhearted and to set them again on the path of following God.  We can do the same today.

God is still looking to put people back together.  He desires to take those who have experienced terrible loss and make them whole and completely restored.  While other people offer counseling and self-help techniques (which can be good), only Christ can make a person whole.  He can take the sting of divorce away.  He can removed the pain of addiction.  He can free the mind of the troubled and the overwhelmed.  Why does he do this?  Because He loves them and He wants to see them completely fulfilled in life.  The only way one can be truly fulfilled is to serve Him, and we can't fully serve Him if we are overwhelmed and in a wasteland of loss.  Through Christ, we can be fully restored and fulfilled in life and our pursuit of God.

What Can We Do To Help?

God empowers us to do great things in His Name.  One of those things is to lay hands on people (Mark 16:18).  A person who is brokenhearted is sick.  They are hurt spiritually and emotionally and that can be as painful as a physical hurt.  To lay hands can mean to get involved with.  We need to get involved in the lives of those who are facing loss.  We need to pray with them, spend time with them and listen to them.  We need to be a present help to them and let the love of God shine through us into their lives. 

The witness of spending time with someone can go a long time to helping a person recover from their loss. When we have the opportunity to speak into their lives, making sure it comes from God will help to minister to them and open them up to receiving the attention they need from the great physician.  In the end, they may not regain all that they loss, but they can still be made whole in Christ Jesus.  He can fill in the gaps that can't be replaced. He can restore that which can be brought back.  He can even give better and more abundant things than what we had before.  All we need to do is lead them to Christ and He will do what is needed.


Service

Look for someone who has just experienced a great loss and commit to comforting them.*
Offer to pray with them, but also just listen to them as they talk through their grief.
Don't offer an answer (unless God impresses), just offer God and prayer and your time.
Watch your presence and the presence of God bless them and help to make them whole.
See how God revives them to be used again.

*Man to man and lady to lady

Resource

Lloyd John Ogilvie's Praying Through Tough Times is a great book to get people started on their own recovery and can be a resource for you to study before meeting with your partner.  It might even be a good Study you can share with them. It's only $7 on Amazon.