Broken Hearts

How do you handle your broken heart?

Sooner or later you’re going to know what it’s like to have your heart broken. If you haven’t already walked through a season of heartache in your life there is a heartbreak coming. This life is not devoid of struggle. The world we live in is a heartbreaking place. Some heartaches are sudden. You never saw them coming. Others come as an end result of rejection. When those who you thought you could depend on suddenly reversed their opinion of you and abandoned you. You find yourself alone when you thought you had friends. Sometimes heartbreak comes when your limits get pressed...when you tell yourself over a period of time I can take it, I can take it and finally something happens just one ounce too great on your shoulders and the straw breaks the camel’s back and you find yourself in heartbreak. Sometimes heartbreak comes in a season of choices and wrong choices lead to heartbreak. Sometimes heartbreaks come over time. You willingly accept an existence which is far less than what your life should be.  Whenever these things happen you must ask yourself “how do I handle my broken heart?”  

We were never promised a life free of trouble.  As a matter of fact, when you are a child of God you have a target on your back.  The enemy doesn’t mess with those who are already walking along side of him. But the good news is GREAT NEWS for the believer.  We are promised that we will succeed in spite of the trouble and that God will use it to promote us to levels we could not have reached in the absence of it.  King David is a great example of someone who had a heartbreak. His world suddenly turned upside down. He had no way of knowing it was going to happen but when it did rather than allowing the circumstance to define him he defined that circumstance. When his family was gone, when his finances were taken, when his children were seeming to be in great danger, his friends betrayed him David rather than choosing the opportunity to quit he decided to take this day, rejoice in the Lord, His God and see God’s victory in his life. What did David do with a broken heart? David turned his doubt into joy, his sorrow turned into dancing.

You have the opportunity to do the same.

1 Samuel 30: 4-9:

“So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. David’s two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, “Bring me the ephod.” Abiathar brought it to him, 8and David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?”“Pursue them,” he answered. “You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.”

How do you handle that thing you never saw coming? How you handle it when the boss comes in and says I’m sorry you no longer have a job here? What do you do when your husband betrays you and no longer wants to be married to you?  How do you handle it when the doctor gives you test results you were not expecting and never thought you would have to hear?

How did David handle it? David had 600 men of war and is in a town called Ziklag, defending Israel, a nation he does not yet rule. He is not yet king and does not sit on the throne but still loves his country.  David and his mighty men are returning from a trip and when they walk back into town. Instead of seeing their families walk out to meet them they see smoke on the horizon. This is not what they were expecting.  All of a sudden their joy turns to tension and tension turns to terror. They run into the city of Ziklag and see that their wives and their children have been kidnapped by the Amalekites. They had attacked Ziklag in David’s absence and burned it. They see that their material possessions have been taken and their homes destroyed.  David’s heart and the heart of every man that was with him was broken. They didn’t know what to do. The Bible says the first thing that they did according to verse 4 was to fell on their faces and they lifted up their voices and they wept until they had no more power to weep. When your heart breaks you have to know that it’s okay to cry. Their is nothing strong about stoicism. David was brave enough to fight a lion, a bear and a giant. And David’s men were so mighty that we are still telling their stories today. Yet when their hearts broke they fell on their faces and wept until they had no power to weep.  What do you do when your heart is breaking?  What do you do in that moment of time when the enemy has taken everything you treasure away and suddenly you are there with nothing left? David and his mighty men fell on their faces and wept.  I advise you to take a moment, when your heart breaks, and have a good cry.  Then after that moment of grief there comes a decision you must make. It’s one you have to reason within your own heart, soul and mind. It’s a moment of time that we all decide on our own. For your own sake you have to decide all by yourself if God’s Word true or is it not. Because if His promise is true then it will endure, if His Word is real then it will come to pass.  If it’s true I have to choice but to endure my broken heart in God’s unchanging hand. You see David and his men all faced the same circumstance and it all happened in the same place. They all fell on their face and they wept until they had no power to weep. Then suddenly things changed. David’s men made one decision and he made another. David’s men began to look for someone to blame.  Have you ever found somebody in an emotional moment and all they want to do is blame someone? Why? Because we love the blame game. Everything has to be someone else’s fault. David’s men, in their emotional moment, began to talk to one another. Do you know that often talking to everyone you know does not solve the problem? The men all started talking and then the talking led to blaming and complaining.  In their emotion, they began to discuss the decision and suddenly they decide that everything they are feeling in that moment in someone else’s fault and they make a decision that seems perfectly rational in the moment but may not play out well in the long run. And guess what their rationale decision was? Let’s stone David!

Doesn’t that make sense? My heart is broken.  Let me kill someone and that will heal me. The Bible says that David was greatly distressed as his 600 men spoke of stoning him. These trained killers now have a new target and it’s David.  David’s heart is breaking too and they want to take everything they are feeling and place it on him. Many of you know what it’s like to have a broken heart and then your broken heart is made worse by what other people are saying and doing to you. Sometimes you hope for the best and you get the worst. Sometimes something happens that you never saw coming. You’ve got to know that it’s not always someone else’s fault. Sometimes it’s just life.  When you walk into a season of trouble don’t look for someone to blame. Just know that it means you are alive. Joseph had a broken heart. It broke the day his brothers decided to throw him into a pit and decided to plan his death. And instead of killing him they decided to sell him.

I’ve got good news for you today my friend.  The same God that was in that pit with Joseph is with you.  The same God that sat by those graves with Job is with you. The same God that was in the garden with Jesus Christ is in the sanctuary with you.  He is with you in your hour of sorrow. He’s here to let you know that this trial did not come to stay. It will pass. God’s Word insures us that weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning.  In this moment of heartbreak don’t look for someone to blame, look to Jesus Christ because He will make a way when there seems to be no way. He said He will never leave nor forsake you. He was there when Job wept for his children, He was there when Joseph was betrayed by those closest to him, He was there with Abraham on top of the mountain, He was there with Daniel in the lion’s den and HE IS HERE FOR YOU!

So what do you do when your heart breaks?  Everyone gets to weep. And what you do when the weeping is over determines if you are going to be a VICTOR or a VICTIM.  Will the heartbreak define you or will you define it?

David did not act like everyone else.  Rather than looking for someone to blame he made a decision to strengthen himself.  He did it the best way he could have. He strengthened himself IN THE LORD. He did not strengthen himself by considering what others had done. He strengthened himself in the only true source of strength. There comes a time when you have to get some things straight with yourself. Get a mirror and look at yourself and say “you know what you need to do.” The Bible says “let a man examine himself.”  When you examine yourself you see where you are spiritually, emotionally and relationally.  If there are areas that are not as they should be you are honest about it and the second thing you do is ask the Lord to help you change it.  The most motivational speech you’ll ever hear is the one you give to yourself. The Bible says that David encouraged himself. There was no one else to encourage him so he made up his mind to encourage himself. He rises to his best when everyone else thinks he should be at his worst. “Self we’re not going to give into fear, worry and bitterness.  We’re not going to play the blame game and live in depression. We’re not going to whine, we’re going to shine! This didn’t come to stay, it will pass and I will REJOICE!”  We need to preach to ourselves every morning before we go to work or school!

Stop counting your burdens and start claiming your blessings! You’ve got to look back at all of the great things God has already done in your life and rehearse them.  Know that if God did that then He can do it all over again. When David had no one to encourage himself he encouraged himself.  Encourage yourself by SAYING what God says about you. He says you are His heir, His beloved daughter in whom He is well pleased.  He says you are the most priceless of all His possessions. When the world has given up on you listen to what God says about you and know that God calls those things that are not as though they were.  He gave you the power of His name and when you worship every demon in Hell tremors and quakes. You are a victor! More than a conqueror! Declare today that the Lion of Judah is on your side and if God be for you then who can be against you!

Sometimes you have to remove yourself from the circumstances before you can think straight. When your heart breaks don’t make big decisions staring your problem in the face.  Get above it or get away from it, because that’s where you’ll have the opportunity to think.

This is what David did. He called upon the Lord. He called for the ephod, the garment of the Priest.  This was very symbolic telling God that he had run out of answers and needed His wisdom. Before you react, knee-act.

David asked the Lord if he should pursue this troop, these terrorists? Shall I overtake them?  It’s not that David didn’t know what to do. He was a warrior. But before he did what he wanted to do he wanted to know what God thought about it. He submitted his carnal mind to His spiritual mind before he took his life into his hands.  He didn’t want to act unless he had his permission. The answer is always in God’s book. The answer to every problem in our life is there. God will not whisper something to you that is already clearly written in His Word. His direction is always in His Word. He will often confirm it through a pastor, a teacher, or a Christ centered friend.

If your heart is broken look in the Word for your promise…

If the enemy has attacked you with sickness your word is “By His stripes you are healed.”

If he has attacked your family your word is “No weapon formed against me shall prosper.”

If he has attacked your finances your word is “He will supply all of you needs according to His riches and glory.”

God takes the broken pieces of our lives and makes beautiful things. He gives us beauty for ashes. God’s story never ends with ashes.  Don’t let your pain be wasted by being angry and bitter throughout life because you feel you have been unjustly treated. Instead, let your scars be lighthouses for people that are headed to the same rocks you hit. There are so many people that have mountains looming in front of them that they feel they can never overcome. You can use your experience to help them. When we offer our experience to God for His use He uses our pain to help others and to promote us into positions of greater power and influence. There is nothing that has hurt you that can scar you for life. There is nothing you can’t recover from and nothing God cannot heal. God has guaranteed our success toward wholeness as long as we don’t give up.

God Bless You,

Love,

Sherry :-)