The Healer of Broken Hearts and Wounded Spirits

He heals the brokenhearted

And binds up their wounds.

Psalm 147:3

A couple of years ago I met a woman who had recently become a widow. She told the story of how her husband had died of cancer and that she was trusting God to heal her broken heart. Today I received an email from her. She has met someone, fallen in love and will be married next month. I immediately thought of Psalm 147:3. When the worst thing we can imagine happens to us, we can turn to our faithful God and give Him our broken hearts and wounded spirits. He understands our pain and He has a huge storehouse of love and compassion to pour upon us in our journey back to wholeness. 

The Free Lunch Bunch

Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” 

John 6:26-27

Jesus had performed the miracle of feeding the multitude. The next day the people came looking for Him, and Jesus -- always aware of what people are really seeking -- rebuked them. They were only coming to Him for another free lunch and He knew it. The Lord was willing to meet their physical needs. He already had done so the day before. But what He really wanted them to have was eternal life. Something they needed more than earthly food, and which only He could give. "Even when these people were witnesses to the incarnate God, they only wanted more of a show and not more of Him. This parallels people today who want a cheap, easy to swallow message but not the real Message of Truth that convicts and impacts. They want a God who dispenses cures to what we think ails us rather than the real cure to what really ails us—redemption (John 11:40; 1 Cor. 1:22)." -- R. J. Krejcir Ph.D. Into Thy Word Ministries

Don't Change the Subject

The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus *said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” The woman *said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”
John 4:17-20


When Jesus confronted the Samaritan woman at the well with her immoral lifestyle, she used an age-old defense mechanism. She tried to change the subject. Isn't that what still happens today when people are confronted with their sin? They try to change the subject to something else. We just don't like it when someone points out the truth of our pitiful condition. Jesus doesn't bring up our sinfulness to condemn us. He brings it up to change us. He knows how destructive sin is and how it keeps us separated from Him. By the end of her conversation with Jesus, the woman at the well had come to recognize Him as the Son of God and she called others in her village to meet Him. “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?" (v. 29) When we humble ourselves to the truth of who we really are, we see the truth of who God really is. 

Enlightened Souls

"On God my salvation and my glory rest; 

The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God." 

Psalm 62:7

When David's enemies were trying to destroy him, he knew where to place his trust and confidence. He went to "The Rock". Throughout the Psalms that's how David referred to God. "The Rock." God was his "refuge". A sanctuary. A place of protection. God was David's salvation and his glory. When we are troubled, we can do what David did. Let God be the answer. "To find all in God, and to glory that it is so, is one of the sure marks of an enlightened soul."--Charles Spurgeon

God Loves Prodigals

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

Matthew 18:12:14

For every parent of a prodigal, these words of Jesus offer hope. Just as a shepherd goes after the one sheep that wandered off, so will our  Good Shepherd go after His wandering child. He will do whatever needs to be done to bring him  back. If you are the parent of a prodigal, take heart. He loves your son or daughter. His will is to bring them back to His flock. Pray for your child and trust that God will accomplish His purpose.

All For One

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

John 17:20-21

One of the events in Jesus' life that should touch us deeply is this: His prayer to the Father on our behalf. Just hours away from His death, the Lord is asking for unity among believers. Those who would come to know Him years after He had left the earth. Unity is so important, because it is what will make the world believe that Jesus is God. But maintaining unity doesn't mean we compromise on doctrinal truth. In Acts 15  Paul and Barnabas had "great dissension and debate" with their Christian brothers over circumcision, but they did not disassociate from them. They continued to meet with them and seek God's will together to resolve their differences. And God resolved them. Perhaps that experience caused Paul to write in Philippians 3:15 "and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you." Lord, help us all to be one -- and all for One.

Happy Giving

"Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

2 Corinthians 9:7

God is more interested in the way we give our financial gifts than the quantity of them. We should give out of our love for Him, each one of us deciding the amount based on what God has placed on our heart. The Greek word for cheerful -- hilaros -- is the root for our English word hilarious. God wants us to give happily, as He happily gives to us. "God does not want our giving to be grudging (reluctantly, regretfully given with plenty of complaining) or of necessity (given because someone has made us or manipulated us into giving). This is more the spirit behind taxation, not Biblical giving!" -- David Guzik