Help! I’m Hurting!

Last Sunday (3/18/18) I attended Kauai Baptist Church in Lihue, HI.  Pastor Nathan Grosse brought an excellent message on “Hurting Hearts.”  I took copious notes I’d like to adapt into this devotion.

First, the HURTS.  We live in a world of hurt!  People are hurting all around us from all kinds of hurts—Physical hurt; emotional hurt; and spiritual hurt. All the hurts of this world are the result of sin (Gen. 3:17-19).  If Adam had not sinned in the garden, our world would still be pain-free. As long as we live in this world, we will be subject to hurts.

Second, the HELP.  Where do hurting people go for help?  There are a few things that may offer some limited or temporary help—Exercise, diet, change in lifestyle, or even medical help.  God has also instituted the local church to minister help to hurting hearts.

Many hurts are the result of our thought life.  Psychologists tell us the average person as 65,000 thoughts a day. 95% of the same thoughts reoccur from day to day! Thought patterns are formed.  If the majority of these thoughts are negative thoughts, they will plunge a person into emotional depression very quickly.

So, one way we can get help is by controlling our thought life (Phil. 4:8).  One of Satan’s battlefields is our mind. Therefore, we are told to cast “down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and [bring] into captivity EVERY THOUGHT to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5 cf. Rom. 12:1-2).

Third, the HOPE.  When people are hurting, they begin to wonder, “Will this hurt ever go away?  When will this pain end?”  Thank God, Christians have a hope the world doesn’t have—Jesus Christ is our blessed hope.  We are assured that whatever pain we may be suffering now, will not last forever (John 14:1-3).

This is one of the reasons the new movie, “I Can Only Imagine” is so popular.  It offers hope to those who are hurting.

Finally, the HEALING.  There are some hurts that only Jesus can help (Ps. 121:1). Jesus is our healer—Our Jehovah-Rophe.  We may find the help we need in the Bible or at God’s throne of grace (see Heb. 4:16).  As the wonderful hymn says:

Is there a heart o’er bound by sorrow?
Is there a life weighed down by care?
Come to the cross, each burden bearing;
All your anxiety—leave it there.

Healing will begin when you believe and act upon who you are IN CHRIST.  Don’t listen to what the devil says or what the world says about you.  Believe the truth as it is in Jesus (Eph. 4:12). The truth will make you free (John 8:32).