The God of the Broken-Hearted
by J. R. Miller, The Beatitude for
the Unsuccessful, 1892. The Lord is near the broken-hearted,
Psalm 34, 18. The God of the Bible is the God
of the broken-hearted. The world cares little for the
broken hearts. Indeed, people oftentimes break
hearts by their cruelty, their falseness, their injustice, their
coldness, and then move on as heedlessly as if they had trodden
only on a worm. But God cares. Brokenheartedness
attracts him, the plaint of grief on earth draws him down from
heaven. Physicians in their rounds do
not stop at the homes of the well, but of the sick. So it
is with God in His movement through this world. It is not to the
whole and to the well, but to the wounded and stricken that
He comes with sweetest tenderness. Jesus said of His mission, He
has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, Isaiah 61. We look upon trouble as misfortune. We say that the life is being
destroyed, which is passing through adversity. But the truth which
we find in the Bible does not so represent suffering. God is
a repairer and restorer of the hurt and ruined life. He takes
the bruised reed and by His gentle skill makes it whole again, until
it grows into fairest beauty. The love Pity and grace of God,
minister sweet blessing of comfort and healing to restore the broken
and wounded hearts of His people. Much of the most beautiful life
in this world comes out of sorrow. As fair flowers bloom upon rough
stalks, so many of the fairest flowers of human life grow upon
the rough stalks of suffering. We see that those who in heaven
wear the whitest robes and sing the loudest songs of victory
are those who have come out of great tribulation. Heaven's highest
places, are filling not from earth's homes of glad festivity
and tearless joy, but from its chambers of pain, its valleys
of struggle where the battle is hard, and its scenes of sorrow,
where pale cheeks are wet with tears, and where hearts are broken. The God of the Bible is the God
of the bowed down, whom he lifts up into his strength. God is
the God of those who fail. Not that He loves those who stumble
and fall better than those who walk erect without stumbling,
but He helps them more. The weak believers get more of
His grace than those who are strong believers. There is a
special divine promise which says, My divine power is made
perfect in weakness. When we are conscious of our
own insufficiency, then we are ready to receive of the divine
sufficiency. Thus, our very weakness is an
element of strength. Our weakness is an empty cup
which God fills with His own strength. You may think that
your weakness unfits you for noble, strong, beautiful living,
or for sweet, gentle, helpful serving. You wish you could get
clear of it. It seems to burden you, an ugly
spiritual deformity. But really, it is something which,
if you give it to Christ, He can transform into a blessing,
a source of His power. The friend by your side, whom
you envy because he seems so much stronger than you are, does
not get so much of Christ's strength as you do. You are weaker than
him, but your weakness draws to you divine power and makes
you strong. He heals the brokenhearted and
binds up their wounds. Psalm 147, 3.