Don’t Let Pain Close Your Heart

Will the hardship harden your heart or strengthen your soul?

As the tears raced down my face this morning and my sobs echoed in the quiet, this thought occurred to me. We often don’t get to choose our hardships, but we do get to decide how we will go through them. 

If I’m being honest, my heart wants to close right now. I want to build walls so high that nothing can break through. I want to protect my heart from pain and loss, disappointment and rejection. I’m not nearly as strong as people think I am. 

I spend a lot of time crying and praying. Things hurt me all the time, and I beg God to use them to make me better and not bitter. 

I’ve been in the bitter places, and even wallowed in the muck of it all. In the trenches, the enemy tells us we don’t need anyone. No one cares about us anyway. If we close our hearts to love and slowly push people away, it won’t hurt as much when they leave us. 

That may hold some truth. But with the distance comes a lot of guilt and shame. Love is supposed to be shared and treasured, not rejected and abandoned. 

I know it hurts to love someone so deeply and then lose them. It leaves scars on our hearts. While it may feel too painful at first, later the scar will be a beautiful reminder of the love we gave and received. 

To close ourselves off to love is not truly honoring our love. True honor is to use the love to help us love others even deeper, and when we can do that, our souls will get stronger. 

When we allow God to use it all for His good, we can grow through our hardships. 

Romans 8:28 KJV

28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

These are just a few examples of how God uses our circumstances to teach us and strengthen us:

  • Heartache can teach us compassion.
  • Failures can teach us how to trust the Lord.
  • Fear can teach us about faith.
  • Shortcomings can teach us about God’s grace.

Regardless of how hard it gets, sweet friends, God’s got us. If we look, we can see God’s hand in it all. Our mission here is not to live a comfortable, perfect life. It is to show others our God by how we live our lives. 

If we close our hearts to love, we really close our hearts to God, because God is love. 

1 John 4:8 KJV

8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

So, even when it hurts, let’s love deeply and fiercely. Let’s love so deeply that others see and feel God in everything we do. 

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