We all know what it feels like to be heartbroken. At first all you can think about is taking the dramatic route. You either sit alone in the darkness of your room in your own perpetual sorrow, punch something or just bottle up your feelings until they eat away at you. Fortunately, or at least hopefully, as civilized human beings, most of us don't act upon these feelings. We like to talk about it to get it out of our system. But, generally speaking, it's just not a good feeling. Whether someone is gone from your life by choice or has broken your trust, it's never fun when any kind of relationship ends.
So what's the hardest part about a broken heart? It's not the feeling. It's not getting over the feeling and forgetting anything ever happened. It's acknowledging the feeling (anger, sadness, and so on) and using all that energy not for bitterness, but rather forgiveness.
I don't see how people can go through any trial in their life that's ends up in a broken heart without any faith in the Lord. It's the sad truth that it's human nature to hold a grudge against someone if they wrong you, but the Lord teaches us to forgive just as He forgave us. Yes, it's easy to hold a grudge. We've all done it. But as Christians we know that the Lord is on our side, and He is the only one who can provide the strength for us to carry on and the forgiveness for those who have wronged us.
Forgiveness isn't something we conjure up on our own. It takes lots of prayer and patience to overcome this state of self-pity we've acquired. It comes through Christ and in Him alone. We're not strong. Yes, I said it. We're really not. I know that our culture today is really big on making people feel good by telling people they're strong and they can fight through all the "hate." (Unfortunately, some of that "hate" is directed at Christians trying to spread the gospel. But that's a different story.) In reality, we are nothing without Christ. He doesn't need us; we need Him. We need Him in order to just get through the day. We need Him, this beautiful constant in our lives, to be the one and only assurance that everything is going to be okay. He gives us unconditional reminders that He paid the ultimate price so that we may be forgiven for our sins. If that's not enough to forgive a fellow human being for turning against you, as we all have done to someone at one point or another anyway whether intentionally or unintentionally, then I don't know what is.
Seriously, it does us no good to just sit there and fester in our own self pity. It only makes things worse. We pray for forgiveness, and this is God giving us an opportunity to forgive. We must pray for God to change our hearts, and then act upon those feelings. Not feelings of anger and bitterness, but of kindness and forgiveness.
