Silas
Beloved of All
I hear the deep ache in your prayer and the longing to be heard by someone who is no longer near. That kind of longing after a breakup can feel like deep waters that threaten to swallow you, and it is painful when your words seem to go unanswered.
God does hear you, even when another person cannot or does not. Scripture shows that what God most reads is not outward appearances but the longings of the heart, and He is looking for a heart that wants to live after the Spirit in purity and holiness before Him. When that consciousness of His presence grows dim, we are tempted to take a memory or a person or a keepsake from the past and make it into something we look to for comfort, almost as if it could give us what only God can give. There is a story in the Bible where the people began to worship the bronze serpent that God had once used in the wilderness, and a faithful king broke it into pieces and said it is only bronze. It was a reminder that a relic can never replace the living presence of God Himself.
That is why the greatest need Scripture points to is not first to be heard by another person, but to be reconciled to God. All things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting our sins against us, and He has given to those who know Him the message of that reconciliation. We are in need of reconciliation, and God invites us to be reconciled to Him. That happens only through Jesus, and it calls us to turn from living centered on ourselves and to take up the cross and follow Him, choosing to walk after the Spirit.
The psalmist prayed with a soul that was breaking with longing for God's righteous ways, and he also prayed, turn my eyes away from empty things and make me alive in Your way, and strengthen me according to Your word. That is a good prayer for this moment. Ask God to turn your eyes from what is empty and cannot satisfy, to make you alive to the things of the Spirit, and to strengthen you through His word when you feel heavy.
Know too that God's heart is not thundering against you in judgment in this hurt. When we fail or when we are wounded, His heart is tender toward us and His desire is to restore us and to form Christ in us. He wants to lift your eyes to where your help truly comes from and to gather you close among His people where you can be supported.
I will pray that God draws you into a deeper experience of His presence and His love, that He heals the hurt of this loss, that He forgives and cleanses through Jesus and makes your heart alive to His way, and that He guides your future relationships according to His design, which is salvation through Christ alone and, if He leads to marriage, a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman where intimacy and shared life belong. May He give you peace as you bring every longing to Him, trusting that He hears and that He will lead you in holiness and hope.
God does hear you, even when another person cannot or does not. Scripture shows that what God most reads is not outward appearances but the longings of the heart, and He is looking for a heart that wants to live after the Spirit in purity and holiness before Him. When that consciousness of His presence grows dim, we are tempted to take a memory or a person or a keepsake from the past and make it into something we look to for comfort, almost as if it could give us what only God can give. There is a story in the Bible where the people began to worship the bronze serpent that God had once used in the wilderness, and a faithful king broke it into pieces and said it is only bronze. It was a reminder that a relic can never replace the living presence of God Himself.
That is why the greatest need Scripture points to is not first to be heard by another person, but to be reconciled to God. All things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting our sins against us, and He has given to those who know Him the message of that reconciliation. We are in need of reconciliation, and God invites us to be reconciled to Him. That happens only through Jesus, and it calls us to turn from living centered on ourselves and to take up the cross and follow Him, choosing to walk after the Spirit.
The psalmist prayed with a soul that was breaking with longing for God's righteous ways, and he also prayed, turn my eyes away from empty things and make me alive in Your way, and strengthen me according to Your word. That is a good prayer for this moment. Ask God to turn your eyes from what is empty and cannot satisfy, to make you alive to the things of the Spirit, and to strengthen you through His word when you feel heavy.
Know too that God's heart is not thundering against you in judgment in this hurt. When we fail or when we are wounded, His heart is tender toward us and His desire is to restore us and to form Christ in us. He wants to lift your eyes to where your help truly comes from and to gather you close among His people where you can be supported.
I will pray that God draws you into a deeper experience of His presence and His love, that He heals the hurt of this loss, that He forgives and cleanses through Jesus and makes your heart alive to His way, and that He guides your future relationships according to His design, which is salvation through Christ alone and, if He leads to marriage, a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman where intimacy and shared life belong. May He give you peace as you bring every longing to Him, trusting that He hears and that He will lead you in holiness and hope.
