Psalm 147:3 - He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

 Ladies and gentlemen... Valentine's Day is approaching us quickly and what a sweet, special time it will be! It's so neat that there's a holiday out there where celebrating is getting to simply love one another and be loved ourselves. It's all about LOVE, how great! Right? 

But what if that's not the reality for all of us? In our previous blog you may have seen us touch on that while we may be receiving gifts, candy and love letters or going out to parties and having special dates planned leaving our hearts filled, millions of people will be trafficked and sexually exploited leaving their hearts completely shattered. While we go to bed with a smile on our face, there will be many with tears streaming down theirs questioning if they will ever be worthy of love and if love even exists for them. Then there will be some who stopped crying years ago who have bought the lie that the hope of ever being loved is gone, or that this so-called "love" they are experiencing IS love. Guys, this is HORRIFIC. This is what millions of people will be believing this Valentine's Day. MILLIONS!

Man, writing about this kind of stuff is not the easiest. Diving deep into the possible burdens of these people who are suffering in order to allow the Lord to break our own heart for them so that we can share that heavy heart to others is hard sometimes. So many times I'll find myself holding back tears just feeling so sad and heartbroken for these people who I forget about on a daily basis because I'm too focused on myself rather than others who are deeply hurting, people who go through this torture each day. Sometimes it's even easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of hurt and sin in the world and almost start to feel hopelessness creep in, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has felt that. You very well may even be sitting on the other side of the screen reading this with your heart completely hurting for these people. Just feeling like all of this world is a lot. So... now what? What are we supposed to do with this heaviness? 

We TAKE HEART because the difference between us and the world is that we know that HE has overcome this broken world! We have been gifted with a never ending hope! The word "hope" in our English language is used as more of an abstract idea similar to a wish which makes the previous sentence not as encouraging. But when Jesus uses the word "hope" in the new testament, the original translation was not in English but actually Greek giving the word a bit of a different meaning. In English, hope means "a feeling of expectation" but in Greek the word translates to elpis meaning "expectation, trust, and confidence". It comes from the root word elpo, meaning "to anticipate (with pleasure) and to welcome". So the hope Jesus gives us is much more concrete than just a feeling or a wish. We get a hope that is secure rather than insecure and we can eagerly expect and trust in it making it WAY more significant to us. So why go on a whole tangent about the word hope you may ask? Because we as believers know that we can whole-heartedly trust that God keeps his promises. So if we can hope in God's promises, we can trust the words of Psalm 34 where it says that the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and that He saves those who are crushed in spirit. The Lord is GOOD! He does not abandon the brokenhearted, He heals them.

Revelation 21:4 - He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

Isaiah 41:10 - I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

This is a perfect reminder for us to not get discouraged feeling like no matter what we do it'll never be enough because we know that where we may be limited, He is LIMITLESS. God doesn't need our efforts, but every effort is now a joy and delight because God is inviting us to join Him in his great plan to bring himself glory that He so graciously shares in with us.

With that being said, I am not encouraging anyone to be lazy and sit to watch God work. I'm encouraging all of us to team up together with Him to do his will and not lose hope. One way you can help is to buy one and give 100 which is an awesome opportunity to reach out to the broken-hearted, but another way you can help that is entirely free... just pray. I want to encourage you to join with us in prayer this Valentine's day and pray that God will be near to the broken hearted and show them that they are deeply loved by their Father in heaven. Also pray that God will use us and teach us to see those who are lost and show them the Love that lives in us. This Valentine's Day, we believe that the unloved will find their Love and that broken hearts will be mended. 💝

 Romans 9:25 - I'll call the unloved and make them beloved.