Devotionals

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God’s Broken Heart…
Our Broken Heart

“He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief”
“Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none”
Jesus Christ speaking in Isaiah and the Psalms


When we speak of the suffering of Christ on the cross, we rightly speak of the extreme physical pain that He endured. Such physical suffering none have endured as His!

However, how little we speak of the emotional and mental anguish that He suffered.

Jesus Christ allows Himself to be vulnerable to abuse and rejection from men.

“Reproach hath broken my heart” He says, because “He is despised and rejected of men”. He was despised and rejected two thousand years ago and He is despised and rejected by men, today.

If we were to ask people who suffer from chronic physical and emotional pain which is harder to endure I believe many would say that emotional pain is the harder of the two. Certainly, chronic physical pain is horrible. It can lead to depression, early death, and put great stress on the recipient and their loved ones. But prolonged emotional abuse and rejection can break the strongest of hearts.

“Reproach hath broken my heart” says the harmless Savior. And for those of us who might question what reproach means, it means to find fault with a person, to blame or censure.

Have we been, like Jesus, the object of reproach? Do others find fault with and criticize us? When we know that we are innocent and yet others criticize and shame us what do we do? Has our heart been broken, perhaps many times?

Let us go to the One Who made the heart. Jesus knows so well the pain we are experiencing. Perhaps His heart was ruptured so that our broken heart could fit inside of His; two broken hearts beating together as one.

O, my precious brothers and sisters in Christ! Let us commit our sorrowful hearts into His, where we will find acceptance instead of rejection, encouragement instead of shame, gentleness instead of harshness and sweetness instead of bitterness.


Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide; O receive my soul at last.
Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, ah! Leave me not alone, still support and comfort me.
All my trust on Thee is stayed, all my help from Thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head with the shadow of Thy wing.

~ Charles Wesley ~


© Virginia Ganskie

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