The Great Sadness - Encouragement Café - March 15, 2016

The Great Sadness, Dear Broken Heart, I Alone Will Comfort You

Café Menu for Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Today’s Special is: Dear Broken Heart, I Alone Will Comfort You

Carefully prepared just for you by your friend, Robin Jones            

Main Ingredient:

You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you.  Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

Matthew 5:4 MSG

Entrée:

There are no words that properly salve the wounded heart.  Only God can bind up the brokenhearted.

Quietly the words played through my mind,

Blessed are you when you mourn…

I respond,

Je-zus!  Are You serious?  Why?!  Why do You tell me that I will be “blessed?”  I don’t feel blessed right now when I have lost what is most dear to me.

Softly, comes the answer in the next breath.

Because then… you will be comforted.

Lord, I’m sorry.  I don’t feel like I won any rewards with the divorce.  I don’t feel comforted.  I am a dismembered gangrenous half a body tossed in the garbage.

Precious one, give Me these ashes and in return I will give you beauty.  I want to bind this wound.  I want to open the door to this prison cell.

“No!  I like it in here.  Bitterness has given me a nice rock to lay my head on here on the dungeon floor.”  I reasoned.

13 years later, I was reflecting on how much God has restored: a new content marriage, a new disposition, an unshakable faith no matter the ups and downs.

Almost self-congratulatory, I boasted,

God has truly restored all the locusts have eaten.

Except that spot.  The still, small voice said.  Within the great happiness there lies the place of the great sadness.

In my mind’s eye I could see a great green, abundant pasture land bearing fruit.  However there was one bald, desolate place.

Why doesn’t anything grow there Lord?

Because bitterness has taken root there.  Satan has built a fortress there that can only be penetrated by the blood of Jesus.  Part of your ministry and effectiveness that I want to release is being held hostage there.

“By whom?  Satan?”  I enquired.

“No… by you.  Are you ready now for Me to heal your land?” His sweet voice whispered.

Terror gripped my heart at the thought of feeling the sadness that had been held back for so long.

He continued,

Surrender that hurt to Me no matter what feelings bubble up inside of you.  I alone will comfort you.

Like a child, I nodded my head in agreement with what the Spirit of God was showing me.

Do what You must.  I cannot let this area take up one more square inch of the life that You have restored Lord.

Immediately, healing and comfort rushed into my heart through His wings.

Take Out:

God knows the havoc that divorce works on our souls.  It is a necrosis that belly-crawls through our bodies and savages our souls.  It is a slow painful death that defiles the whole body with bitterness and unforgiveness.

How do we stop bitterness before it becomes a stronghold or fortress in our souls?

We must break agreement with the evil one who rules over the deadly sin of anger and all of its relatives (offense, bitterness, unforgiveness).

You do this by: Speaking, Rejecting and Blessing OUT LOUD!!!

1)     Speaking: out loud, speak to the bitterness, offense, unforgiveness, and anger
Tell it to leave in Jesus' Name.  Speaking the name of Jesus makes the enemy flee.
“Resist the devil and he will flee!” James 4:7 NLT

2)     Rejecting: out loud, denounce it
Tell it that it has no place in your heart anymore. By rejecting it, you are humbling yourself before God and breaking your agreement with the enemy.
“... Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.” Hebrews 12:15 NLT 
“Humble yourselves before God…” James 4:7 NLT

3)     Blessing: out loud, bless that person, people or situation
Blessing instead of cursing seals your heart from letting the sin of anger creep back in. 
“Guard your heart above all else,  for it determines the course of your life.” Proverbs 4:23 NLT
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”Romans 12:14 NLT

Dessert:

Lord, You don’t give Your heart in pieces.  We do, but You don’t.  Lord bind up our broken hearts.  Heal our wounds.  May we humble ourselves completely and agree to let You heal all of the barren spots in our lives.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

For more encouragement, visit Robin at therealrobinjones.blogspot.com

© 2016 by Robin Jones.  All rights reserved.

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Originally published Tuesday, 15 March 2016.

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