Healing the heart: Wound care (3)

In the previous post on Healing the Heart, we saw that the healing process is dependent upon specific one-on-One time with the Lord, who is the Healer of the broken heart. Many times however, God will use other people as His instruments at some point of our healing process. Read on as I share some more guidelines that can help us during times when our heart is bruised or wounded.

People as God's Vessels

• Comfort, prayer, confession, and counsel

God uses His people who have themselves learned to depend on Him for comfort, to comfort others. Maybe you will have God's Spirit stir up concern for you in the heart of someone else. That person may be given the ability to perceive your need for someone to talk to, or a special desire to pray for you.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5

Maybe God will move your heart to approach another believer and make your need known. As you pray, He will direct your steps so that you confide in the right person, whether this be a friend, a leader or lay minister in your Church community, or a professional Christian counselor. There are people who will understand what you are going through because they have walked hard roads with God and know His faithfulness. They can help you understand what you're going through and how to deal with it in a healthy way.

Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water,
But a man of understanding will draw it out.
Proverbs 20:5

As described in an earlier post in this series, our healing may require confession and repentance for the healing process to begin. God has made it so that confession and transparency towards others will break the power of various strongholds in our life, and because He has made it so, we can be assured that He does have trustworthy people we can bring these matters to.

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
James 5:16

Godly persons equipped by God for your help, can give wise counsel for your situation and bring fresh, faith-filled perspective. They can testify to you of God's love and power. They can encourage you to hold on to your faith in God and His word. They can remind you of His promises. Their effective prayers can move mountains on your behalf.

• Practical acts of kindness

In addition to encouraging you to look to the Lord for your healing and nurturing you in overtly spiritual ways, a trustworthy, believing friend at this time can be a great practical help to a wounded heart. There are whirlwinds that can assault your life so vehemently that you feel physically incapacitated. For example, a grieving heart may not even have the desire to cook or buy a meal and a friend can step in and provide those practical needs as expressions of God's love and care.

• Fellowship

At other times, you will need godly fellowship and conversation - apart from discussing your trials or brokenness. A friend's companionship at an event, time spent together in any clean, fun activity that you will enjoy, can be medicinal to your heart. It will help you to remember the goodness of God and inspire you with hope that in time full healing will come, and there will be more good things to look forward to.

• Comfort, pray for, and serve others in need

The more quickly you learn to pour into the lives of others what God has been pouring into you, the sweeter the healing process becomes. It is an acceptable sacrifice and act of worship towards God when in sincere love and compassion, you try to reach out or encourage someone else to hope in Him. The person with a wounded heart may not be able to do this right away, but as healing begins to become evident, this compassion for others has an opportunity to bloom to the glory of God, and for the good of that other person and your own good. You become as much an instrument of the Lord in their lives as they will be to yours. This is a beautiful thing, when the fragrance of Christ begins to emanate from your own life to bless the lives of others.


People are often instruments of God in answer to our prayers for help, but we must remember that God has never asked us to place our trust in people. In fact, His word continually tells us to put all our trust in Him, and warns us that the help of man is useless. While we should embrace His help when it comes through others, even then we need to keep our eyes on the Lord. He alone is the Healer; He alone is the Source of all joy, comfort and hope.

In my next post, I will begin to wind down this series by sharing a few more practical and general suggestions for caring for the wounded heart with an emphasis on caution about what not to do.

This is the first post in a series called Healing the Heart. You can find a link to all the posts in the sidebar under labels, or just click here. If using this link be sure to read from the bottom up because they were posted in a specific order to be most useful to you!