Healing the Brokenhearted

In Luke 4, we read that Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed..."

If I could paraphrase what He said, it would be:

"I have come to heal your heart and to set you free."

Then in John 10:10, Jesus said, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.

I love this declaration that Jesus made. We have had this verse in a frame on the wall of our home for over 25 years and I look at it almost every day - at least the last half of the verse - the part about Him coming to give me an abundant life. But the amazing thing to me about this verse is that the wonderful promise of the second half of this verse follows the first half - you know, the part about the thief coming to steal, kill and destroy.

The part about stealing, killing and destroying is real - just as real as the promise that Jesus made about abundant life - and that is a reality that we need to come to grips with as much as the reality of abundant life.

Jesus said that at the same time that He was coming to give us a never ending quantity of God's quality of life, there is also an enemy out there who will try to take away every thing from us that he can.

The enemy is trying to:

• Steal - your freedom
• Kill - your heart
• Destroy - your life

If he can take your heart out, he can take you out. If he can get you to live from your intellect or your outer person - anything except your heart, he will have kept you from experiencing all that Jesus came to give you and make you ineffective against him.

The target of satan is the assault of your heart. If he can he will:

• Wound you so deeply that you don't want to live from your heart
• Twist your understanding of who you are so that you think your heart is wicked-even after you are born again
• Take away your courage so you won't fight for your heart's freedom
• Destroy your creativity
• Make you so busy with religious activity that you ignore your heart
• Make intimacy with God and others impossible

But the superior reality is that Jesus has come to heal our broken hearts and to set us free from anything that would hold us captive and keep us from life.

"I have come to heal your heart and to set you free."