God is near our broken hearts!

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted

and saves the crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:18

The heart breaks so easily. It can shatter into a thousand precious shards. Some ways the heart breaks:

• Shattered dreams. They could be relational, vocational, or aspirational. But what we hoped to do or be is often broken by brutal reality. It is just not our experience. Our hearts break for the dream that is lost.
• Broken relationships. This is all too common in a day and culture where selfish visions screaming “Fulfill me!” hoist heavy sinful expectations on relationships. That will guarantee a broken heart eventually. But relationships don’t always break from a selfish overload. Often they break from the actions of the other person. Sinners who love sinners will inevitably hurt one another.
• Loss. Hearts will break in grief. We can grieve a hurt or an imperfect situation. We can and should grieve the death of someone we love. And a string of these can leave a person feeling alone, vulnerable, and broken-hearted.

Enough of these experiences can crush a person’s spirit. Some soul-crushing examples:

• Homes dealing with abuse, divorce, or desertion.
• Diseased bodies and minds struggling to get through each day.
• Cultural or societal upheavals like poverty, epidemics, war, famine, political instability, or persecution.

All these heart-breaking, soul-crushing experiences are all too common. But take heart… God is not distant! He is near! 

Jesus suffered with broken-hearted, soul-crushing agony for us, carrying all our sins and sorrows on His cross… wrongs we have done… wrongs done to us. He then rose again over death and death-like experiences. God is near in His Son and in His Holy Spirit. He saves us and mends broken hearts! God rebuilds and refills crushed souls!