Updated: Sep 26
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me. And now, look, your house is abandoned and desolate. For I tell you this, you will never see me again until you say, ‘Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the LORD!’ ””
Matthew 23:37-39 NLT
We all know what it feels like to have a broken heart. We have experienced the crushing pain associated with personal loss, betrayal, abandonment, and so on. What some people may not realize, is that God also knows what a broken heart feels like.
Indeed, we know that mankind has brought sorrow to God’s heart even from the beginning. Sadly, when man began to spread across the Earth, man’s evil became so great, that the Lord decided to destroy His own creation.
“The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.”
Genesis 6:5-6 NLT
Yes, the Lord’s heart was broken that His creation had become so evil that it had to be destroyed.
All through the Bible, we see incidents of the Lord expressing sorrow over man’s continued tendency toward rebellion.
The prophet Isaiah speaks prophetically concerning the sorrow God-made-flesh, Jesus Christ, would experience at the hands of His own people.
“He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.”
Isaiah 53:3 NLT
In our opening scripture we see Jesus expressing great sorrow when thinking of what His people would have to endure because of their rejection of Him.
We read the words expressing the grief Jesus experienced over knowing that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed (having rejected His offer to save them), perhaps without realizing that we may also be grieving the heart of our Lord.
Think of it: God continually reaches to us, offering a way of escape from all sorts of trouble and danger. And yet, we often do the same thing that Jerusalem did and turn a deaf ear to God’s warning. And with us—as with them—He mourns the trouble we often bring on ourselves by not turning to Him.
Sometimes we break His heart by putting our time with Him so low in our priorities that we never seem to find time to just be alone with Him.
Sometimes we break the Lord’s heart by defiling ourselves with the world.
Other times, we break His heart by becoming ungrateful of His goodness
Whatever it is we do, or don’t do, that brings sorrow to God’s heart, one thing is for sure, we do it often.
Child of God, let’s recognize the ways in which we have broken the heart of our Lord (perhaps repeatedly) and ask for His forgiveness.
Let’s determine to be more mindful of the Lord. Let’s walk more closely to Him, listening more intently to His word, seeking after His heart. By doing so, maybe we can bring joy to the heart of our Father Who has done so much for us!
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!
“This is what the Lord says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land. “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.”
Jeremiah 17:5-8 NLT
God had promised Israel that He would take care of them and would watch over them. Yet the Bible tells us of many times that Israel turned to other nations for help, rather than trusting the Lord to do what He had promised.
“What sorrow awaits those who look to Egypt for help, trusting their horses, chariots, and charioteers and depending on the strength of human armies instead of looking to the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.”
Isaiah 31:1 NLT
The Lord, speaking through Isaiah, makes clear His displeasure with the children of Israel for trying to orchestrate their own protection rather than trusting Him.
In our opening scripture the Lord is again warning His people that they were about to lose everything because their hope was placed on other sources of strength and security apart from the Lord.
Of course, trusted relationships are not evil. In fact, the Church, as the body of Christ, must operate such that the members depend on each other as do the parts of a correctly functioning human body.
However, the Lord’s disapproval is earned when His children place their hope or trust in what someone else can do for them rather than recognizing that our help comes from the Lord.
Of course, God uses people to perform His work. But, He can and has also used animals, the weather, or anything else in the created order to perform His will.
This isn’t about mistrusting people or not seeking and developing Godly relationships. Indeed, recognizing the Lord as our source, improves our relationships because we aren’t putting the kind of pressure on other people that they really cannot, in human strength, handle.
Let’s ask the Lord to forgive us for looking for a “knight in shining armor.” Let’s recognize that He is already here!
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!
“We do not have the audacity to put ourselves in the same class or compare ourselves with some who [supply testimonials to] commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they lack wisdom and behave like fools.”
2 Corinthians 10:12 AMP
We learn early on in our development that not all people have the same abilities, attributes, talents, strengths, weaknesses, and so on. Sadly—because of the hole in our soul made by sin—we quickly learn to begin to assess value by the use of comparisons: “I’m faster than this one;” “I’m taller than this one;” “My book bag isn’t as good as that one’s book bag.”
Sadly, the comparisons don’t stop when we are no longer children. As adults, we still tend to compare our appearance, our place in society, our job, our income, and so on, with the “Joneses.”
Now, some people tend to look at others in a critical way, generally putting themselves up in estimation by comparison.
Some look at others in an envious way, becoming bitter and self-deprecating because of perceived shortcomings by comparison.
Use of comparisons in this way divides people and displeases God.
In our opening scripture we hear Paul reminding the church at Corinth that comparing ourselves with others leads to foolishness.
The church at Galatia received a similar caution from Paul regarding their tendency to look at themselves through the prism of comparisons with others.
“Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct.”
Galatians 6:4-5 NLT
Remember, the Lord is a very personal God. He meets everyone at the point of their God-given abilities and dispenses purpose and direction accordingly. In fact, that cause/effect relationship is probably the other way around: We are outfitted by God with what we need to fulfill His purpose for us, not what someone else is called and designed to do.
Make no mistake, in the final analysis, we will give an account to the Lord for what we did with what was given to us, not what
anybody else did with what they were given, much less, being judged in comparison to others
Let’s ask the Lord to forgive us for comparing ourselves to others. The fact is, whether the end result of those comparisons is self-condemnation or self-exaltation, it is wrong.
Rather, let us ask the Lord to help us keep our eyes on Jesus, the only One to whom we should look for comparison.
Indeed, a miracle is wrought by looking at Jesus, and staying focused on Him; as we do so, He will transform us into His very image. And there is nothing greater we could desire.
Give up the comparisons; look at Jesus.
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!