“Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalm 103:1-5 NIV).
This is the perfect passage to look at when wanting to be encouraged and bring healing to your broken heart. Praising the Creator of the universe and acknowledging Him as holy is where we start. We get our focus off of ourselves and onto the God who not only created us, but knows everything about us.
Our hearts are broken because we live in a world where every single person (no matter what tribe or nationality) is born with a sinful nature and is separated from God. We do many things to hurt each other and break each other’s hearts.
The entire Old Testament points to Jesus Christ coming as the Savior of the world and bringing everlasting healing and forgiveness to our hearts. The psalmist saw a glimpse of that healing that was available. The psalmist saw a God who was able to forgive sins, heal our diseases, redeem our lives, and crown us with love and compassion. Not only that, but also a God who could satisfy your desires with good things and renew your youthfulness, so that you could rise as high as an eagle through life’s difficulties.
The prophet Isaiah also spoke of rising like an eagle. “Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary” (Isaiah 40:31 NASB).
If we praise God for all He wants to do for us, praise God for the promise of strength, when our hearts are broken, and when we are weary, it changes our hearts from being broken to being healed and renewed.
There are many different things in life that can break our hearts. We let each other down. Something from our past when we were a child or maybe something from our teenage years. But maybe it was something that just happened yesterday. God sees it all and knows that you are hurting. You do not have to suffer in silence. Come to God and praise Him. Take the focus off your problem and heartache. Put all your attention on the one who heals. On the one who sent a healer—Jesus the broken-heart healer.
The Gospels are full of stories of how Jesus healed people in various ways. If your heart is broken, come to the Father and praise Him for all that He has done for you personally. Take the first step of praise and you will soon discover that your cry of brokenness will soon turn into a cry of praise. That cry or shout of praise will start to heal you in many different ways that you never thought were possible. Your heart will show forth gladness and happiness instead of bitterness and rage. People will start to notice a difference in you.
God through Jesus Christ wants to satisfy your desires, but your desires must be in line with His desires. If our desires are focused on our sinful nature, and its desires, then God cannot answer those prayers. If you pray that you can win the lottery so you can buy a bunch of things you don’t need, and do a bunch of things that may not glorify God, then He’s not interested in that kind of prayer.
When we come to God and praise Him and get our focus on Him, then our desires start to line up with His desires and that’s when all the promises in Scripture start to come true. Not only that, but your heart will start to heal and it will be because you started your prayer with praise. God wants to do many wonderful things in and through you, as a believer. Will you let him do what he does best? He wants to take your broken heart and transform it into an uplifted heart that is focused on praising Him and building the Kingdom of God. Praise God for what He wants to do in your life!
Parry Stelter is originally from Alexander First Nation and is founder of Word of Hope Ministries and lives in Edmonton, Alberta.
