“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
Psalm 147:3
I have had my heart broken so many times in my life that I cannot even remember all the dates. As I am writing this devotional today, I find myself thinking about every time my heart has been broken and how healing came.
A spree of heartbreaks
Some of the most recent ones I can remember vividly. Around 2015, there was a major disappointment that happened, something that affected my family deeply, and it left me heartbroken. In 2019, my heart was broken again when I got a call that my sister had been diagnosed with cancer for the second time. When I saw her and saw how her leg was affected and how much pain she was in, my heart broke all over again. I remember thinking, who survives this a second time?
In February 2021, my heart was shattered when my mother woke me up in panic because my sister was no longer breathing. In 2022, a relationship I thought would work out did not. It was not necessarily a deep heartbreak, but it was another disappointment in a year already filled with pain. Toward the end of 2023, I experienced heartbreak again through lost opportunities, disappointments, and the physical weight of grief.
A lot can break a heart
In every single one of these moments, relationships were not the most painful part. Loss, disappointment, grief, and unmet expectations hurt deeply. When your heart is broken, it is heavy, painful, and difficult to move forward. That is why when the Bible says “He binds up their wounds,” it makes so much sense. A broken heart truly feels like it is shattering into countless pieces.
This scripture is not only for heartbreaks related to relationships. Many things can break a heart. Your heart can be broken when you lose a job unexpectedly, when a business fails, when income dries up, when you step out in faith, and things do not go as planned. Your heart can be broken by loss, by grief, by disappointment, even from childhood experiences. But the Bible says He heals the brokenhearted and He binds up their wounds [Psalm 147:3].
Wounded heart
One thing a broken heart does is trap you in a cycle of despair and pain. It affects your ability to have faith and believe in God again because of repeated disappointments. That is why God heals broken hearts. He knows how difficult it is to let go of brokenheartedness. But He promises to heal you. He wants to bind your wounds, if you can trust Him.
Let the Holy Spirit comfort you right now, wherever you are experiencing heartbreak. May the God who causes healing to occur begin to heal your broken heart. In the midst of the pain, the weight, and the heaviness, I pray that the spirit of heaviness is lifted and replaced with hope and joy [Isaiah 61:3]. I pray that you are not dwelling in pain, but that you are healed and set free in the name of Jesus.
Prayer:
Father, I bring my broken heart before You. You see every wound, every disappointment, and every place of pain. I ask that You heal me, bind up every broken place, and restore my joy. I declare that the Lord is healing my heart. Every place of brokenness is being bound up, and my joy is restored again in Jesus’ name. Help me to trust You again. I receive Your healing and Your peace in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Bible Reading for the Day:
Morning: Psalm 34
Evening: Isaiah 61
