Dear friends, I never want to run out of things to convey to you that will encourage you, reassure you, comfort you and bless you; be it a prayer, a conversation or a piece of writing. And, by the grace of God, I pray that I have been able to impart some helpful thing to you from time to time during this difficult season. Of late I have chatted with so many of you … and I know that this latest lockdown extension has been the most testing one we have had to endure thus far. I prayed with a hurting brother this week who, with voice quavering in hurt, simply said to me, “Pastor, I feel so broken today, so hurt, so disappointed …”, and his voice trailed off a little before he gathered himself, “… I am concerned that I will not get over this … this brokenness.”
I wept with him.
Many others are having similar experiences, I know. I have felt it, too. But remember the words of the great prophet, Isaiah, who prophesied about the Messiah to come 700 years hence …
“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, …”
Isaiah 61:1 (NIV)
At the very outset of His ministry, having come from His wilderness testing of 40 days - and now in the power of Holy Spirit - Jesus owned these very words. That day when He got up to read the scriptures in His hometown synagogue, the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him, whether by chance (I think not), or by lectionary timetable, we are not told. He unrolled it until He found the ancient prophecy concerning Himself, and read these words of Isaiah to all assembled. Then, Luke records, He rolled up the scroll again, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him.
And He began to preach saying,
"Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
Luke 4:21
Notice that little word “is”, there! In other words, “I’m here right now, and this is My ministry - today.”
I read and reread these words of Jesus and am constantly reminded that Jesus is here right now … TODAY. His ministry is the binding up of broken hearts - TODAY. King David’s most read psalm, Psalm 23, said of Yahweh the very same thing …
Psalms 23:3 (KJV) “He restoreth my soul”, and it is written in the present tense, that is, TODAY.
Friends, brokenness and disappointment, sorrow and hurt, though it feels at the moment like these will never stop, and that we’ll not recover from the brokenness they are causing, we are reminded by Isaiah’s prophecy and Jesus’ ownership of it that they are never permanent for God’s people. Because He is here, today, to bind up broken hearts. Brokenness in a season – long or short - is not our lot in life; not our destiny. In Christ, my brokenness is never permanent and, therefore, it does not have the final say about me. And so, I encourage you to draw near to the Messiah who binds up broken hearts … today.
He is very near to you. May you experience restoration, refreshing and renewed hope as you wait upon Him today and through the week.
He restoreth my soul … today … in order to prepare me for the coming joy.
Selah!
Ps Milton