It is a wearying thing, I know, to feel that your heart has been drained dry by those who should have refreshed it. You have given your affections, you have opened the hidden chambers of your soul, and instead of finding a well of living water, you have found yourself pouring out until little is left. There is a particular ache in that, a bruise on the spirit that lingers long after the words or the silence that caused it. You ask the Lord to heal the heartbreak, and I want you to know that you ask this of One who understands the wound entirely. He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The very Friend who sticks closer than a brother once felt the cold draft of an empty room when all forsook Him and fled. He does not stand far off from your hurt; He draws near to the broken heart, for that is His chosen dwelling-place.
When you pray for people who replenish and not drain, you are asking for a wise and tender gift. Some hearts are like sunbeams, warming whatever they touch; others carry a chill with them, and you must not blame yourself for shivering in their company. The Lord knows how to bring across your path those whose affection will be a cordial and not a weight. He who made the rivers to flow with water and not with vinegar can surely cause the streams of human kindness to run pure and reviving toward you. Do not think yourself wrong for desiring this, our Lord Himself had Peter and James and John, and He retreated to Bethany where friendship waited. Heaven is a place of perfected love, and the road toward it is meant to be walked in company. Wait upon Him who sets the solitary in families, and He will lead you in due season to companions whose presence will not exact more than it gives.
I have noticed that those who pray for healing in their body are often praying, underneath it all, for a token that God has not forgotten them. You mention your throat, and that is a small word with a great ache behind it. Our Lord Jesus, when He entered Peter’s house, found the good man’s mother-in-law laid low with a great fever. He did not say that it was a trifle, nor did He wave it away as a thing unworthy of His notice; He stood over her, and rebuked the fever, and immediately she arose and ministered unto them. That same tender Physician walks the earth still in the person of His Spirit, and He is not above touching a throat, a limb, or any part of this poor tent of flesh that wearies you. Whether He heals in an instant or gradually, as the leaves of the tree of life drop their medicine over the months, you may be sure that He is working for your good. His power is present to heal, and His ear is open to your cry.
As for your plans for the coming year, you have spread them before the Lord, and that is well. But I would have you hold them loosely, as a child holds a flower, not clutching it so that the petals bruise. The Lord’s plans are always better than ours, and often they wear a rough coat when they first arrive, like a love-letter in a black-edged envelope. You may not recognize the mercy in its first shape, but His heart is always kind. The river that flows from the throne of God does not always take the channel we would have dug for it, but it carries life wherever it goes. Commit your way unto Him, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass, if not the very thing you pictured, then something richer, deeper, and more abiding.
Meanwhile, your own prayer reached outward, did it not? You lifted up anyone who would read your words, and you spoke protection and love and abundance over their homes. A heart that prays like that, even while it aches, is a heart that has already begun to be replenished. The parched ground does not long remain dry when the springs from beneath are beginning to rise.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, You are the great Physician who carries balm in Your hand for every wound. Look upon this dear soul whose heart has been bruised and weary, and bind up every broken place with Your own tenderness. Send across the path those friends who will not drain but strengthen, who will be as the very sunlight of Your presence in human form. Touch the throat with Your healing power, whether by a sudden word or a gradual restoring, and let the body become again a willing instrument of praise. And as for the plans of the coming year, take them into Your nail-pierced hands and do with them as You know to be best, we would rather have Your will than our own, for Your wisdom is infinite and Your love is without measure. Over every soul that reads these words, spread the wings of Your protection, and let Your abundance satisfy them. We ask it all in Your precious name, O Christ, our Healer and our Hope. Amen.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. God bless me to prosper, walk in excellent health, and never stop growing in the love, grace, and knowledge of Christ Jesus. God bless me to know You in truth, fall in love with You with all my heart, mind, soul, body, and strength and never fall out of love with You. Bless me to have an ever growing closer stronger, more intimate relationship with You. Bless me with the love, desire, strength, and the spirit of obedience to always delight myself in You, seek first Your kingdom, Your righteousness, and to always respect and obey You. Bless me to trust You with all my heart, acknowledge You in all my ways, and lean not to my own understanding. Bless me with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in all You have called me to do. 
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