I don’t know what hurts more….heartbreak or Church hurt.

What is worse? The betrayal or the perception of betrayal. They both (Church hurt and heartbreak) required you (us) to put your (read: our) trust in something – or someone- other than God. Both trick you into putting someone/something on a pedestal…making it/they/them/he/she…a God to you at most and an idol at least.

And God did tell us to have NO other gods before him. But, we are humans…so we don’t follow directions very well. The truth is, God is infallible..we however, are not.

So, now we are facing Church hurts, heartbreaks and everything that comes along with them.I’m not saying that we (myself included) should not believe in people. We can. What we should not do is to put the FAITH, the kind that should be reserved for God, in them and then allow them to take Gods place in your heart and mind. He should be 1st. Period. FULL STOP ✋🏽.

The problems we have arise when we forget that minor caveat and slowly or sometimes quickly let flesh take over and push Him out.

And ever the Gentleman…He lets us learn, while still remaining nearby to heal us and take His (RIGHTFUL) place back in our hearts.

(My) Tiny testimony time:

I experienced my own heartbreak recently 😭. It was devastating. DEVASTATING! I didn’t eat for almost a week. Everything sent me into crying (bawling) fits. I was in physical pain. I could feel the shattered shards where my heart used to be and it hurt just to breathe. So, I ran home. To safety. Because home was safe and I felt like I was drowning. I was also angry. So angry. So very, very angry. Angry at the other party. At myself…..at God. Because how could He who the Bible says loves me, allow something like this to happen??! How could He let my heart be broken so? I found myself angrier at God than I was at the betrayal of trust that brought me to this moment….

—Does this scenario sound familiar? It’s usually how the story goes and unfortunately, this time it’s my story.

Anywhoo….As time continues God is mending my heart. Repairing it. Showing me how to move forward through the hurt. Helping me to forgive not only myself but others as well. God has allowed me to grieve the loss of something (that in my mind and heart was important to me), and has forgiven me for my anger -He forgave me before I even asked- but I still asked for His forgiveness and for the help to forgive.

He has told us that He will withhold no good thing from me (us). Be it relationship, job, love, whatever…And I have to believe that – because He CANNOT LIE!Currently, He is re-establishing the relationship we had. He’s making it (our relationship and my heart) stronger so this doesn’t happen again.

Psalm 147:3 says He is a mender of broken hearts…it’s true (as mentioned before He cannot lie nor His word return void).But back to now:

Unfortunately, as people there are times when we allow heartbreak and Church hurts to run us away from the one person (God) and one place (in His presence) that we REALLY need to be. We will bounce from relationship to relationship from church to church..searching. Searching for something that only He can give.

–Or in the worse case scenario: We give up on Church and relationships all together.

Believe me. I know it hurts right now. I understand that they may have betrayed the trust you put in them. They have hurt you when you needed them the most…or didn’t show up at all…but hold on.

TRUST God! Trust His movement. Even when we can’t see it.

Don’t just give up on church. On the fellowship, on your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Don’t give up on God. You may be the one God uses to help heal their (others) hurt and the hurt they may be causing. Remember: Hurt people hurt people. But if you get hurt and angry, and stay hurt and angry, or give up and leave you may miss your healing and maybe your chance to be a healing to others.

Even though you (we) may not want to let go of your hurt, or may just want to spend time in your anger…you have to. As Christians…we have to let it go. In order to heal we need to set it free (read: Give it to God) and allow the God that loved us in our mother’s womb, that created us in His image….the God that told us we are fearfully and wonderfully made to heal us.

Will you allow God to take your heartbreak from you? To heal you of the hurt the Church may have gave? To mend the places torn by someone else?

I’m praying for you today. For all of us. Will you pray this with me?

Lord,

I ask that you heal us (me). Take the hurt and replace it with your peace and comfort. Remind us how highly favored we are. Because Your word says so. Help us to forgive whomever hurt us. But also most importantly to forgive ourselves. Lord, take your rightful place in our hearts. Repair our relationship with you. We thank you for healing. For renewal and Your unfailing love. Move on our behalf in ALL aspects of our lives and let YOUR WILL BE DONE.

In Jesus mighty name,

Amen

So, with that said, in my mind and heart today seems like a good day to allow God to start to mend, to heal, the hurt places. The heartbreak and Church hurt…what do you think? Will you allow Him to?