Prayer Is The Key (Part 2)

How to Pray When Your Heart is Broken
 
Despite our heartfelt prayers, things don’t always go the way we want. A loved one dies. You lose your job. The outcome is just the opposite of what you asked for. What then?
 
Jesus' friend Martha was brokenhearted when her brother Lazarus died. She told Jesus so. God wants you to be honest with him. You can give him your anger and disappointment.
 
What Jesus told Martha applies to you today:
 
"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26, NIV)
 
Of course, we should not always expect Jesus to raise our loved one from the dead, as he did Lazarus. But we should expect our believer to live eternally in heaven, as Jesus promised. God will mend all our broken hearts in heaven. I don’t know how he will do that, but I believe with all my being that he will.
 
Jesus promised in his Sermon on the Mount that God does hear the prayers of the brokenhearted:
 
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." (Matthew 5:3-4, NIV)
 
We pray best when we offer God our pain in humble sincerity, and Scripture tells us how our loving Father responds:

"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." (Psalm 147:3, NIV)

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18).

The image of heartbreak describing the devastating emotional pain of a broken relationship transcends culture and is expressed in the same way in almost every language.  We feel the pain of betrayal and separation deeply at the core of our soul.  It feels as if our heart really is breaking – because of course, it is. God understands this experience because he himself has lived through a broken heart.  God has been a jilted lover. Through his love for us, he has endured unfaithfulness and desertion. God understands our loneliness and identifies with us. We can talk to him about this experience and ask him for help at our deepest point of despair – because he’s been there himself!

Here is a prayer for those who have suffered a broken heart.

“God, you care deeply for broken-hearted people.  This is a promise you make: You are close.  We pray for all those who are crippled by broken relationships.  Our hearts take the blow of disappointment.  We feel crushed because our hopes are dashed.  God, heal broken hearts.  We cannot fix our own wounds.  But you can.  If pieces of our heart have been lost, or are held captive by another, recover them and bring them back to us and miraculously “put us back together” so that our heart is whole again.  You are a mender of broken hearts.  We ask for this miracle, in the name of Jesus.”