Devotionals for the Heart: God draws near to people who have broken hearts

When the Heart Breaks, God Draws Near
A devotional by Heidi Lewis-Ivey

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

—Psalm 34:18 (NIV)

This year has brought a tremendous amount of loss.

I lost my nephew. I lost my aunt. Several members of my church family have passed away too. And in the middle of it all, I almost lost my mother. I experienced one loss after another, close together, until I hardly had time to catch my breath before the next one came. And through all of it, I kept asking God the same questions: “Why? Why so much loss? Why now? Why them?”

Some pain doesn't announce itself. It just sits in your chest and changes how everything feels. You keep functioning. You show up. But something inside is cracked, and you know it. Underneath my why was a question most of us are afraid to ask out loud: “What does God do with a broken heart?”

I used to assume the answer was He will “fix it”, but Scripture tells a different and much more tender story: God doesn't step back from a broken heart. He moves toward it.

Asking Why Isn't a Lack of Faith

For a while I felt guilty for asking God “Why?” my loved ones died. As if the right response to loss was quiet acceptance, and my questions meant something was wrong with my faith. But the Psalms don't read that way. King David, whom the Bible describes in Acts 13:22 as “a man after God's own heart”, asked God the same kind of questions. In Psalm 13:1 (NKJV), David said, “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?”

In Psalm 10:1 (NKJV), David said, “Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide in times of trouble?”

Even Jesus Christ, as He was dying on the cross, cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46, NKJV). If the Son of God voiced a why in His pain, then mine isn't forbidden. God can handle all our questions. He invited honest cries like these from people we read about in the Bible. And He still invites our honest questions today.

I don't have the answer to why this year has been so heavy. What I've found is that God doesn't leave the question alone in the dark. He meets the one who's asking.

He Comes Close First

Before there is healing, there is presence. David, who knew heartbreak as well as anyone, wrote: “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a contrite spirit.” (Psalm 34:18, NKJV)

I want you to notice what the verse says and what it doesn't. It doesn't say God is near to those who have it all together, or to those who handled their pain gracefully. It says He is near to the brokenhearted. The breaking is not what pushes Him away. It's what draws Him in.

That matters because a lot of us carry a quiet shame about our pain, as if being hurt means we're failing at faith. Psalm 34:18 says the opposite. The moment your heart breaks is the moment you're closest to the nearness of God. I love this about God because every year on my brother’s birthday I feel my heartbreaking again over him not being here with us. Yet, I experience God’s presence through the ache in my heart and my tears.

He Isn't Bothered by Our Tears

When Lazarus died, Jesus knew exactly what He was about to do. He was minutes away from raising him from the grave. Yet, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35, NKJV)

He wasn't weeping because He lacked power or perspective. He wept because people He loved were hurting. If the Son of God made room for grief when He knew the ending, then I don't have to rush my own. I remember once I was sharing with someone at church how I felt about the loss of my brother. She asked, “Haven’t you gotten over that yet?”

King David put it another way. According to Psalm 56:8 (NKJV), he said, “You number my wanderings; put my tears into your bottle; are they not in your book?”

Not one of our tears is wasted or overlooked. God keeps count of our tears. The pain I thought no one saw was seen by Him the whole time.

He Heals, and He Doesn't Hurry Us

Then comes the part we usually want first: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3, NKJV).

Notice the picture. Binding a wound is slow, careful, close work. It's what you do for someone you're not planning to leave. God doesn't wave a hand and erase the hurt so we can get back to normal. He tends to it. Jesus made this His mission statement when He stood up to read in the synagogue. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted” (Isaiah 61:1, NKJV).

Healing the brokenhearted isn't a side project for Jesus. It's why He came to Earth.

I've learned that God doesn't put a time frame on our healing. Healing is a process. I wanted it to be a moment, something that would arrive after the funeral, after the hospital stay, after enough prayers. But grief doesn't keep to a calendar, and neither does God's mending. Some days feel like progress. Some days feel like I'm right back where I started. Both are part of the process, and neither means He's stopped working.

The Bible says in Philippians 1:6 (NKJV), “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” God began the work and He will complete it. I don't have to rush Him. I also don't have to measure myself against anyone else's pace.

He Doesn't Discard What's Broken

One of the hardest things about a broken heart is feeling useless, like damaged goods, like something that's no good to anyone, God included.

But God moves toward a grieving heart before it has found the words to ask Him to draw near. He isn't a Savior who watches pain from a distance. The Bible says in Hebrews 4:15 (NKJV), “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

He sympathizes. That means He feels with us, not just for us. When I couldn't make sense of this year, I wasn't bringing my grief to someone who had never known sorrow. I was bringing it to the One who wept at a grave.

The Apostle Paul takes it further. He says the treasure of God is carried in fragile containers on purpose. He wrote this in 2 Corinthians 4:7-9 (NKJV), “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed.”

Hard-pressed, but not crushed. Struck down but not destroyed. This means my brokenness doesn't disqualify me from being used. It's often where His strength shows most. And the comfort He gives doesn't stop with us. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NKJV), “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

Nothing God carries us through is wasted.

An Invitation, Not a Deadline

I don't think this process has a timeline, and Scripture never gives us one. What it gives us is an invitation. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28 (NKJV), “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Come as you are, with the weight still on you. Rest isn't earned first. It's offered to the weary and the heavy-laden, which is exactly who we are when our hearts are broken. And there is a morning coming. Not a denial of the night, but a promise on the other side of it because the Bible tells us in Psalm 30:5 (NKJV), “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

And one day the promise from God will become even bigger when we reach the end of human history. The Bible says in Revelation 21:4 (NKJV), “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Where I've Landed

I've stopped asking God to make the hurt disappear on my schedule. What I ask now is simpler: “Stay close and keep tending the wound.” And He does. Not always the way I expect, and not always as fast as I'd like, but He's never once been far from the broken places.

If your heart is breaking today, hear this: You haven't lost God’s attention. You have it fully. He is near, He sees every tear, and He is not finished with you nor me.

Let’s Pray:

Father God,

You see the places in me that are tender and cracked, the hurts I've carried quietly and the ones I haven't had words for. You know how much we've lost this year—my nephew, my aunt, and so many in our church family, and how close I came to losing my mother. I've asked You why more times than I can count, and I'm still asking. I'm not going to pretend I'm okay. I'm bringing You my broken heart exactly as it is.

Thank You that You are near to the brokenhearted, that You keep every tear, and that You don't despise what's broken. Bind up my wounds. Be patient with me where I'm slow to heal. Where I've hardened to protect myself, soften me again, and give me a heart that can trust and feel.

Comfort my family as we grieve and comfort our church family too. I can't fix this on my own, and I'm not asking You to hurry. I'm asking You to stay close. Let Your nearness be enough for today and let Your healing be real.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

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Song of Reflection #1: “Never Would Have Made It” by Marvin Sapp. Listen to it here.

Song of Reflection #2: “Take Me to the King by Tamela Mann. Listen to it here.

Song of Reflection #3: “Gracefully Broken” by Tasha Cobbs Leonard. Listen to it here.

Song of Reflection #4: “Healer” by Todd Galberth. Listen to it here.

Song of Reflection #5: “Victory Belongs to Jesus” by Todd Dulaney. Listen to it here.

Song of Reflection #6: “Every Single Tear” by Scott Krippayne. Listen to it here.

Song of Reflection #7: “My Prayer for You” by Alisa Turner. Listen to it here.

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Author Bio:

Heidi Lewis-Ivey is an affirmed prophet and an internationally acclaimed speaker.

 

She impacts audiences with her authenticity and bold style of delivery. She has had the opportunity to minister in Trinidad, St. Thomas USVI, Manchester and Liverpool (England).

Heidi is an award-winning and bestselling author. She is the author of Can I Rest Awhile? and Black Girl Cry: What Black Women Need to Know to Amplify Their Voices. She is a co-author in Soulful Prayers (Volume 1 and Volume 2) and Soulful Affirmations. Heidi is the convener of the Encountering the Courts of God movement and the founder of Visions International, a training ground for five-fold ministry gifts.

She holds a Master of Business Administration in Organizational Leadership from Norwich University and a Bachelor of Science in Management from Boston University. Heidi is the CEO of Nael & Associates Inc and franchise owner of Patrice & Associates recruiting firm. She is a member of the Pentimenti Women Writers Group, a former mentor with Year Up, former board member for Friends of Young Achievers, and a Diversity Equity and Inclusion Strategist.

Heidi is the proud aunt/great aunt of 14 nieces and nephews and two bonus nieces. They are her joy. The older nephews have become her protectors.

Heidi is an NFL football fan. As a child, she taught herself the game. In 2017 she won her NFL.com fantasy football league. Heidi is an avid reader (Audible listener) of romance novels, a lover of purses and handbags, and a tea snob who believes bling is always appropriate.

She lives in Boston, MA.

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Connect with Heidi:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamheidi01
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/heidi-lewis-ivey