We are pleased to feature a guest post by Christian writer and speaker, Carla Pollard. We encourage you to follow the link to her blog, Leading Women to New Heights: Discover Intimacy with Christ. Thank you for sharing your insightful words of wisdom.
Where Should We Turn When Our Hearts are Broken?
by Carla Pollard
“…there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.”
Mark 14:3
We all suffer heartbreak. It comes in different forms and intensity. It hurts. Our heart is precious to us. It is the place where we feel love, where songs originate and where romance blossoms. When our hearts are broken where should we turn?
Do We Turn To Ourselves?
If we turn to ourselves to protect for healing we risk becoming hardened. Then when we should feel sympathy or compassion, we don’t. We find we care only for our feelings and heartbreak. Bitterness rears its ugly head through flippant remarks, destructive words, displays of anger and resentment. We risk spreading this bitter poison to others.
“Looking diligently lest any man fall of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” Hebrews 12:15.
We Need to Turn to Jesus
He sees passed all our flippant remarks and destructive words and sees the brokenness and emptiness we feel inside.
“…for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” 1 Samuel 16:7.
Jesus wants to take all our heartbreak and give us a new heart. He cares what happens within our hearts. He knows how much it hurts.
“…reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness, and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.” Psalm 69:20.
“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” Isaiah 53:3.
Yet Jesus displayed a perfect heart.
He had compassion on the multitudes that would kill him, wept over the city that rejected him, spoke words of healing to the oppressed, and expressed love to those who hated him.
He accepted the road that lay before him leading him to the cross.
On the cross as He died for us – while we were yet sinners and enemies of God – he said “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
He forgave the wrongs inflicted upon him.
We may not be perfect, but with Jesus’ help we can be better. The Lord doesn’t desire us to have a stony heart; he wants to give us a heart of flesh.
Compassionate.
Kind and gentle.
When our hearts break we should be like the woman with the alabaster box, and pour out our brokenness to Jesus. It’s a sweet fragrance to him.
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise.” Psalm 51:17.
“The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” Psalm 34:18.
It’s difficult but if we turn to Jesus he will heal our wounds and make us pliable in his hands. He will mold us a new heart usable for his kingdom.
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you…” Ezekiel 36:26-27.
Carla Pollard is a Bible teacher and Christian writer. She facilitates small group studies within Proverbs 31 Ministries Online Bible Studies. She serves Compassion International as a child advocate. You may read more about Carla and her ministry or contact her to speak for your next event through her blog, Leading Women to New Heights, at www.carlagpollard.com
All Scripture used is from the King James Version.
Photography courtesy of Michelle Welch and Dennis Ensor, All rights reserved.
