After a certain class in Bible college, when we had come to the end of the quarter, the pastor who taught the class called all of us up and prayed over each one of us individually. That was nearly 20 years ago now, but I can still remember it so clearly. In fact, I wrote some of those words down so that I would always remember them.

One of the things he prayed over me was that God was doing a golden needle work in my heart. And boy was this pastor right! The Lord was doing a work in my broken heart.

I had no idea why I was even in Bible college. I just knew that I’d followed the Lord’s leading, and He brought me there. While I was there, it was like the Lord began to dismantle the things the enemy had built in my life, the lies and the things I was made to believe about myself. He was working to heal my broken heart.

For years, I found myself immersed in the Word and surrounded by people who really wanted to follow Him,even to the ends of the earth.

I saw myself as broken, but the Lord saw me as his precious daughter. He truly wanted me to see myself as He saw me, and to heal my broken heart.

And the Lord did do a golden needle work in my heart that year.

He began to bring me out of my pain and brokenness. As I said yes to God, He began to deal with each thing individually.

You, dear sister are also the Lord’s precious daughter and He is the physician of your heart and your life.

So today I’d like to discuss a few things that we can do when God is working on your broken heart.

Realize Your Need for Him

The first thing is to realize your need for Him.

Know that you can’t do this yourself.

You can’t strive for your healing.

You can’t make it happen.

But what you can do is sit at Jesus’ feet, be in the Word, worship and in prayer, and let Him minister to your broken heart. Let Him lead you to the people and ministries that He has called to help you heal.

Realize that the Lord knows you more than you even know yourself, and He knows what you need.

It was as I sat in prayer that I felt God’s called to go to Bible college, and over several months He kept confirming that.

It was sitting at the feet of Jesus that I felt God talk to me about writing for Him. And over the years He has brought me on quite a journey. I have met who I needed to meet at just the right time.

So dear sister, you are his precious daughter and he has a plan for your healing and for your life.

Don’t strive.

Don’t try to open the doors yourself, but simply find that place of resting at His feet in the Word, worship and prayer, and simply follow His leading into what He has for you.

Don’t Be Afraid

The second thing to remember is don’t be afraid.

Some of us have been raised by judgmental, angry and harsh father figures. This has kept us from really trusting the Lord because we have seen our Heavenly Father the way that our father figure on earth was.

I’ve written a whole Bible study dealing with this issue, and it’s coming out in just a little over a month.

But for right now, know that Jesus has compassion on you.

He is not like the father figure who hurt you.

Know that He is a God of mercy and compassion.

He wants to heal your broken heart and heal you of the wounds from your past.

Isaiah 61:1-3 in the KJV says,  

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

This scripture is speaking of Jesus.

 in Luke 4:18-20 Jesus reads this very scripture to the people, and then sits down and says, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (NKJV).

Dear sister, even when you’ve made the mess yourself, God is a God of mercy and compassion, and He came to earth to set you free from your sins and to give you life.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Pain

The third thing to remember is don’t be afraid to feel the pain.

 Many are afraid that they cannot face the pain that they’ve been through, that it will just be too much.

I felt that way too.

And the Lord gave me a scripture about that very fear.

 Isaiah 43:2 in the NKJV says,

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you.

This really spoke to my heart because I was so very broken. I’d been through so much pain and so much trauma, and I was afraid that if I cried, I’d never be able to stop.

I was afraid that the tears, the feelings, the anger, the brokenness would just overtake me.

It would overwhelm me.

 It would swallow me whole.

If I faced it, I would never be able to get through it.

But through this verse, the Lord spoke to my heart about it not overtaking me, that He’d be with me the whole time.

And He was.

 Dear sister, He did not deal with everything all at once, He only dealt with one or two things at a time.

It was a healing journey.

It was not an, all of a sudden you’re healed.

 It was, He’s dealing with one thing at a time.

And when that is dealt with, we came to the next chapter.

So, dear sister, when you walk with Jesus, when you spend time at His feet in prayer, in the Word and in worship, you never ever walk alone.

 Hebrews 13:5 in the NKJV says, For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Be Real

The fourth thing to remember is to be real.

Jesus already knows what you’re dealing with.

 Psalm 139 says He knows your thoughts. He knows what you’re going to say even before you say it.

If you haven’t read Psalm 139 in a while or have never read it, I would strongly recommend that you go read it.

It just speaks of how close the Lord is to our hearts.

The Lord loves you, dear sister, so you can be real with Him.

 Be real with your feelings.

Be real with the questions you ask Him.

I was, I had to be. I asked Him the hard questions. I brought Him my feelings, my tears, my anger, my pain, and my brokenness.

And as I asked Him the hard questions, as I surrendered those things to Him, He took all of it.

Ask for Encouragement

The fifth thing to remember is to ask the Lord for encouragement.

Asking the Lord to heal your broken heart, being open and real, starting to walk along that healing path, can be scary.

And a lot of times when you’ve been through trauma and brokenness, you’ve fallen into patterns that protect and hide the things that you haven’t wanted to deal with.

It’s easy to want to run back to those defense mechanisms.

So, ask the Lord for Scriptures, for words of encouragement, things that will help you to keep moving forward.

The Lord has used people, Scriptures, and things that happened in my everyday life to speak to my heart; to help me keep moving forward.

The Eagle

One of the things He showed me once was an Eagle flying, and these crows were just coming down and they were attacking the Eagle.

I’ve heard that spoken of many times since, but at this time I had never heard of it.

The Lord spoke to my heart about when you are flying higher, the enemy will try to come, and he’ll try to discourage you.

He’ll try to keep you down because when the enemy has you oppressed, when he has you in fear, when he has you in brokenness, he’s got you right where he wants you.

But the Lord wants to set you free.

He wants to help you fly higher than the things that have happened to you.

And when you do that, you come into a great place of healing, and your life gets better, but you also can help other people get better.

So, dear sister, Jesus is the physician of your heart and of your life. He has compassion on you and He has come to heal you.

John 10:10 in the NKJV says,

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

You may feel like a broken mess right now, but God will pick you up and bring you to a place of wholeness.

Where you’ve felt like you’re teetering and can’t stand up on your own, He will support you as you begin to heal.

 As you choose to trust the Lord, He will make himself real to you, and do a mighty work in your heart and in your life.

 Can I pray for you today?

Father God. I pray for my dear sister in Christ. Help her to simply sit at Your feet and trust that as she worships You, reads Your word and prays, that You will speak to her heart.

If there is anything, keeping her from truly hearing Your word, we just ask Father that You would wipe those things away from her life, and that you would bring her to a place of freedom in the name of Jesus Christ.

Lord, where my sister has had father figures or authority figures that have hurt and wounded her, bind up those wounds and show her that You are so very different than those who’ve hurt her.

Make yourself real to her. Show her that you are a God of compassion, of mercy and of grace who has come to set the captives free and to bring healing and freedom.

Lord walk her through her healing journey, helping her to know she is never alone. And Lord, where she has felt abandoned, heal that too.

Help my sister in Christ to know you in a real and intimate way. Help her to be real with You about her feelings, her fears, shame, or anger. Help her share her struggles openly with you and know that when she does, You are listening and You have compassion and mercy on her.

Encourage my sister through your Word, through people, through everyday life. Give her signs that You are there, that You hear her prayers and that You are working, even when she can’t see it.

And Father God, lead my sister in Christ to freedom. Let her experience the life abundantly that you speak of in John 10:10.

In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

© Carolyn Rice 2022

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