The Love of Jesus: Heals Broken Hearts, Sets Captives Free
LoveLetter June 2023
Hi Friends!
It has been awhile! This year has been a ‘year of fallow ground’ for me…I have not written anything since last August. And I have needed that more than I realized. God is so good, right? He brings us in and out of seasons according to His purposes and timing.
We don’t always know what He is up to, but I have felt Him doing good things in my heart, and I have at times known only that I am meant to rest in not knowing all the reasons why. That can be hard, but there is a letting go of the need to know. Also the need for approval or acceptance—from others, yes, but also from God.
Letting Him take us into a ‘hidden’ season tends to remove the external affirmation—sometimes we start to lean on these affirmations as a ‘gauge’ of how we’re doing, or at least I can. Am I ok? Well, everyone is saying I am, that’s good. Am I significant? Well I’ve been productive this week, so yeah, for sure. Am I loved? Well, look how many people ‘hearted’ my post! For sure I’m loved!
God has been revealing to me some of my deepest fears of losing His approval based on my ‘doing’ or ‘not doing.’ What have I deep down believed about His Love? Does He approve of me because I make good choices and do the right thing? Or because of my service to Him? What happens if I don’t serve anymore? Does He still love me then? (Of course!) Ok but what about His approval? Surely He stops approving when I stop serving.
Can anyone relate? I am learning that He still loves and approves of me and is pleased with me, even when I am not doing anything special at all. And that’s Truth!
This year has been interesting because of three things in particular… One, we got a labradoodle and named her Molly. That was the easy part, of course. The rest has been waaaay hard and has pushed me to my limits. We have had a ‘rehoming’ conversation multiple times, but somehow… we still have this golden girl!
Two, I homeschooled both of my kids full-time for the first time this year. That was hard too, but not so hard as the dog situation.
Three, I started a little bookstore, White Butterfly Books, which resulted in an overabundance of books in our house. I should have called it “Books Everywhere” because for awhile there, the books had taken over our house a *tiny bit* …It’s a little more under control now, but not by much!
Word of Encouragement
As I pray today, I hear these words…Rich in love and life. As a daughter of God, I am rich in the love of Jesus. It is an ocean of Love He invites us into! And I am rich in life because God has given us everything we need for life. Life in relationship with the Creator, being in communion with Him, His Spirit to my spirit, is worth a joyful belly laugh!
Life with Him is amazing! He is constantly aware of me, whether I’m paying attention or not. But particularly when I stop and turn my attention toward Him, I can come so simply into awareness of His presence and His affection for me… He is right here.
We are so loved, we live in the bounty of His favor, and with ‘open eyes’ we can see the love of Jesus all around us. Every day I can look around and see Jesus—in the beauty of my backyard garden, in the delight my children bring, in the generosity and thoughtfulness of my husband, in the sweetness of a friend’s encouragement.
These gifts are easy to find in seasons of peace and of plenty.
What About the Suffering?
However, I know that for some right now, you are looking around and seeing a desert, a wilderness; you may be seeing or experiencing pain, suffering, or brokenness. Some of you may feel abandoned by God; some may even believe that pain and suffering are evidence that there is no God or that if there is a God, He doesn’t care. Yet even in our pain or in witnessing the pain of others, in injustice, in suffering, with open eyes, we can find Him.
Suffering is a part of life because life happens here in the broken world. But that doesn’t mean God does not care about us.
I spent quite a bit of time in Psalm 84 last year, and it has become one of my favorite Scriptures. It speaks to this question of suffering. What does God say about our suffering? Psalm 84:6,7 says As they pass through the valley of Baca (a Hebrew word that means ‘weeping’), they make it a spring; the rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.
How can our ‘valley of weeping’ become a spring? It seems impossible; in the natural it doesn’t make sense, but that’s God. When we experience grief, pain, or suffering, Jesus’ love comes right into the middle of our pain. He comforts, strengthens, and walks with us through our ‘valley of weeping.’
He leads us right up to the edge of the spring, where we are able to drink, and be refreshed. We can become a living testimony of the love of Jesus, His compassionate mercy, His power to heal, and His forever goodness.
Here’s more encouragement from this passage in Psalm 84
Luke tells a story about Jesus teaching in the synagogue. Jesus stands up in the synagogue to read. He reads from the book of the prophet Isaiah: ‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me because the Lord has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.’
Then He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’ (Luke 4:18-21)
I’m guessing that was a ‘pin-drop’ moment.
Imagining that moment… wow. Wow for us!! What a gift. Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Because of the love of Jesus, Restoration and Redemption. Because of Him, everything has been, is being, and will be restored and redeemed! All things.
This Scripture Jesus read from in Isaiah goes on to say…[He has anointed me] to comfort all who mourn…to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified. (Isaiah 61:1-3)
God is not absent, and He is not unaware of our pain. Jesus declares publicly that He has come for this covenant exchange: to exchange joy for our grief, beauty for our ashes, a garment of praise for our heaviness. Thank you for this amazing love, Jesus.
And the most beautiful part of it all… that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified. This is redemption. I love this.
Our Need For Him
When our hearts are broken, we see our need and we have the chance to reach for God and to encounter the love of Jesus. The mundane has a way of lulling us into thinking we are just fine; that we don’t need God, and we don’t need a Savior.
Yet face to face with the unexpected, with our own frailty, maybe with realizing we have no control, we are given the gift, like a blessing in disguise, of a chance to consider Him, to return to Him, or even to cry out to Him! Psalm 34:17,18 says The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.
God also says to Israel, and to us, in Isaiah 43:2 Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flames scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
Scripture is full of this truth that God’s love through Jesus, His grace, and His compassion are overflowing toward those whose hearts are hurting today. I love the lyrics of this song…(so worth a listen!)
O How He Loves Us
He is jealous for me.
Love’s like a hurricane. I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory.
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.
And, oh, how He loves us, oh.
Oh, how He loves us.
How He loves us, oh
Prayer
Lord, as I have prayed and sought to know Your heart, I have remembered the grief that so many of Your sons and daughters are experiencing right now.
I lift each of them up to you, I pray for comfort during this hard season; I think of David’s prayer in the Psalms when he says ‘You’ve stored my many tears in your bottle, not one will be lost. For they are all recorded in Your book of remembrance’ (Psalm 56:8).
Thank you Holy Spirit, for being our Comforter. I pray that Your hope would rise in the hearts of Your sons and daughters, like the sunrise comes after the night. Hope, rise up within! Like a sun rising up over the waves of the tempest deep… Your boundless deep calls to the depths of our longing hearts. Call us to come to You on the water, even amidst the raging storm, Lord.
Thank You for Your numberless, precious thoughts toward us, frail as grass, cracked clay pots releasing your light through every crack and crevice, I pray Your rivers of living water will flow out from within us, as You redeem every moment of our pain.
A Psalm of Comfort
O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it…Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them.
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You. (From Psalm 139)
I have known no greater source of comfort in times of grief than the truly accessible presence of the Holy Spirit, and the words He offers us in Scripture. If you are grieving, know you are loved. The Lord remembers you today!
If you are reading this and you are in a season of peace and plenty, please join with me in praying for those who are grieving. And if Holy Spirit brings someone to your mind that could use this encouragement today, please share this letter with them using the ‘Share With a Friend’ button below.
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5).
Love,
Chalis