Here are 6 ways God can heal a broken heart:
1. Serve and Love Others
Sometimes we have to have our hearts broken so that our eyes can be open to what breaks God’s heart. Sometimes we have to experience pain, isolation, and brokenness to really see the needs of others instead of focusing on ourselves and our own happiness.
One of the best ways to heal is to help others heal. Serving, loving, and giving bring deep joy because it’s what we are made to do. It brings fulfillment and fulfills our purpose.
This might mean flying across the world and serving the hungry, but it can also be as simple as calling your mom or a friend and asking, “What’s one task I can help you with this week?”
It can be getting your neighbor’s mail, going to the grocery store for the tired mama down the street, writing encouraging letters with prayers and taking them to the local prison, volunteering for an event on your campus or in your community, leaving $20 on someone’s windshield, taking food to the man on the corner, or visiting elderly (or even your grandparents).
If your heart is broken, realize you’re not the only one. Instead of wallowing in your sorrow, extend a hand to the breaking world around you.
When you give your life to others, your life becomes so much more abundant. When you pour out your life as a gift, the gift you get is life poured back into you.
2. Love and Serve God
I had a friend that felt very called to go on missions but her biggest hesitation was that she was in a serious relationship and didn’t want to leave behind a man that she cared deeply for. It was as if she was in a constant battle, trying to choose between her calling and her companion.
When that relationship painfully ended, it hurt but she also felt as though she could fully and freely offer her life to the Lord. The hesitation was gone and the battle was over. She could walk freely in her calling.
Perhaps this isn’t your situation but when God removes something or someone from our life, when we experience hurt or heartbreak, part of the reason for that is because it’s like the collapsing of a false god in our life.
When someone else has the power to make us feel so empty and lifeless, that’s when it’s clear who was really on the throne of our hearts.
Now, I’m not saying not to deeply love someone, whether that’s a significant other, a child, etc. However, I am saying, that as painful as loss and heartbreak can be, it’s sometimes the way God creates space in our hearts and room in our life so that nothing holds us back from full surrender.
C. S. Lewis says, “He who has God and everything has no more than he who has God and nothing else.”
Heartbreak dares us to let God be enough and healing from heartbreak dares us to depend on His enough-ness.
In order to heal from heartbreak, you have to take action in letting Him be enough. Seek His calling, go when it doesn’t make sense, and share your faith when it’s uncomfortable or when you feel embarrassed. I mean, you’ve got a broken heart and you’re still breathing, so what have you got to lose?
Put your surrender and your faith into action and watch as it slowly begins to heal your heart and revive your reason for living.
3. Love and take care of yourself
You can’t love yourself by whining or by constantly staring at the gaping hole in your heart. You love yourself by letting yourself love, by eating healthy, by being intentional with your time, by organizing the world around you, and by doing the little things you’ve neglected doing.
I know that heartbreak can make you want to climb into a cave and curl up in the fetal position. It takes a lot out of you and it can be tempting to just shut off.
While your feelings are valid, that doesn’t mean you should live there. You simply can’t care for yourself if you’re numbing the pain with chocolate, alcohol, laziness, sleep, distractions, or rebound guys.
That doesn’t mean you can’t get weary and that doesn’t mean you can’t feel defeated now and then. We’re all human and life is hard.
But it does mean don’t set up camp in your brokenness. Don’t live there.
Examine the little things you can be more intentional about and look for ways to be more intentional and loving toward the life God has given you.
This can be done by cooking healthy meals more often, getting more active, creating a schedule to get into a healthy routine, getting involved in activities that will help you grow spiritually, mentally, and physically, joining a Bible study or small group (getting in life-giving community!), or learning how to manage your time better.
Heartbreak gives you two choices: become a better version of yourself or a worse version of yourself.
