A healthy relationship with the significant person in your life is a beautiful thing. Most of us long for this type of relationship. When we meet someone that we believe will give it to us, we believe that our heart’s desire has been met, but sometimes these relationships do not work out as we hope. Just as we, ourselves, may have fallen out of love with people in our past relationships, the person that means so much to our worlds right now can also lose the love they once had for us. It can be devastating to even the strongest of women.
I have friends that have been on the receiving end of this kind of heartache more than a few times. I’ve seen them try just about anything to diminish the pain. You can feel so traumatized that you don’t want to get out of bed or face the day. You just don’t think you have the strength to make it through. The reality is that this kind of pain reveals just how desperate we need the love of God and His Word to minister to us. Often, we need the correction of God’s Word to set us on the path of God’s healing and faith.
1John 4:18(NLT) declares, “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.” The love that 1John 4:18 is referencing is the love of God. And in God’s love, there is no imperfection whatsoever. God’s love is perfect love and it demolishes fear and all its cousins. Every believer has the responsibility to fully comprehend this truth. We should be totally dependent on God’s love, because His love is our strength from day to day. His love sustains us and causes us to flourish, but sometimes we neglect this truth and don’t do enough to nurture our relationship with God. When this is the case, our lives can become seemingly unglued.
Many times, our heartache reveals that we depended too much on the love of the man that is no longer in our lives. We must be honest and ask ourselves if we placed the needs of the man over our priority to God and His Kingdom. Then, we must be patient and seek God for the answer to the question. If we answer it for ourselves, we may not be as honest as we should, or we may miss the depth of sorrow we’ve caused the Holy Spirit. The impact of our error must resonate in our hearts for us to truly seek God’s forgiveness.
If we did not prioritize our relationship with God appropriately, we must repent. He doesn’t want us to walk around in condemnation, feeling worthless. Quite the contrary. God’s correction is power. It brings restoration and healing, and we desperately need this. He wants us to repent because repentance indicates our humility. It demonstrates our gratitude for the finished work of Jesus Christ through his sacrifice, because it shows God that we understand Christ made forgiveness possible. This invites the Spirit to do a greater work in our lives and transform us into the people God desires us to be.
God told the Apostle Paul in 2Corinthians 12:9(NLT), “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” God does not want us to be in pain. Heavenly Father is our Creator and all of us come from Him. 1Corinthians 6:19-20(NLT) tells us, “19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” We are God’s children, and we belong to Him. Any time that we experience pain from something that has gone wrong, or from someone causing us heartache, we must remember who we are and who we belong to.
Sometimes we make decisions and choices without being patient to hear from God, and there are also times when we just completely mess things up for ourselves. God knew it would happen well before we did. His love for us is so powerful that it doesn’t matter how many times we mess up or get it wrong, God can turn things around. Romans 8:28(NLT) declares, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” If we remain faithful to Him, and if we humble ourselves under His guidance and correction, God will heal our hearts, and help us to both give and receive love in a way that always puts Him first. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“What Our Heartache Reveals”, written by Kim Times, edited by Reverend Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2022. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.