Saves The Crushed Spirit

Legos have their own self-defense when you step on them barefooted but their defensive feature doesn’t work well when one is wearing shoes.  Perhaps you feel like the Lego knight right now with the weight of everything that is going on in your life coming down on you. Knowing no matter what you do to protect yourself, you will be crushed underneath it. Then it is time to turn to the Knight in shining armor who can save you.

When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears
    and delivers them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
    and saves the crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:17-18 (ESV)

Have you ever cried out to the Lord for help and expected immediate help, yet you have felt like He left you on hold and forgot about you? That is not what these verses say.

Sometimes when we are brokenhearted the pain is so much the Lord feels as if He is far away. The key word in the sentence above is “feels”. We can’t live our life by feelings because they come and go. Like the waves at the ocean so are our emotions and feelings. Sometimes building and crashing on top of us while other times barely making our feet. Our feelings lie to us that God is far away from us when He is right next to us.

Jesus knows what it is like to be brokenhearted and crushed in spirit. Take a look at what happened in Luke 4:16-30. After He read the passage in Isaiah 61;

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

He announced that passage was fulfilled in the presence of those who heard Him read it. Yet those in His home town of Nazareth chose to drive Him out of town, even desired to throw Him off a cliff. He walked right through their midst not seen and left. What could be more painful than to have your hometown totally reject you. Friends, neighbors and later we will see His family rejecting Him. He kept His focus on why He came for just after being rejected the next thing He set free a man from demons and healed a many.

Should you be brokenhearted, carrying a crushed spirit, seek the Lord for He is next to you ready and waiting to heal you.