Psalm 34:18a "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart"

I heard a story this week about a man who faced a great disappointment in life. He grew up in an average family, and felt very loved by his mother and father. His parents loved the Lord, and had taught him to do the same. They had demonstrated the love of Christ to him. At some point however, when he was about ten years old, his dad started drinking. The young lad never knew why. He only knew that it was destroying his family, and it was devastating to him personally. He began to pray.
About that time, and I may have the date wrong, but I believe it was back in the 1980's, the young boy heard about a prayer tower that a famous pastor at the time was building. The young lad decided that if only he could get his prayer requests to this famous preacher, and that once they were prayed about in this prayer tower, his answer would come. He was certain that his dad would stop drinking. Weekly, the boy would save up money in any way he could, so that he could send a dollar with his prayer request. Every week, he would mail his envelope, with the prayer request inside, and his dollar bill..and then he would wait.
He prayed for weeks, and then months..eventually it became years..and his father never did quit drinking. When the boy became a young man, at the age of l8, he went on a cross country trip, and ended up in the town where the prayer tower had been built. He was with a friend, who mentioned that there wasn't much else to do in this town, but that they could go to see this very large tower that had been built. The young man decided that he did indeed want to see it. He and his friend made their way across town, and got directions to the tower. They finally arrived some time later. The young man looked up at the tower, and immediately he was filled with grief. With tears in his eyes, he spoke to God.."Lord, this is nothing but a big mass of metal and steel..and it doesn't even work."
The young man was broken in spirit. He had cried out so long for his father, who now was at home, very near death, from the damage that the alcohol had done to his body. Now he found himself feeling defeated, and angry. He began to wonder why God had never answered his prayers. He began to weep, and pour out his heart to God. He began to question Him. He began to wrestle with Him...and in the moments that followed, a miracle began to take place. The Lord began to supernaturally FILL him with love. The anger that he had experienced for all those years, at his father, and at God, began to disappear, as though it had just melted away..and what replaced it was a love of the deepest kind, agape love, the love that God has for His children when they fail...the love that is without any conditions.
The young man got on a plane and flew home. He ran to the back of the house, where his father lay in bed, gravely ill, and he climbed into the bed with him. He began to weep. He put his arms around his dad, and held him. He spoke to his dad the words that I'm sure his father had longed to hear for years. He simply said, "Dad, I love you, and I'm so sorry". His father died sometime later that day.
This young man had prayed for years for his father, seemingly with no results. Have you ever had this experience? Have you ever been disappointed by someone? Have you ever prayed about something, and felt like God just wasn't hearing you? Have you waited for what seemed an eternity, and still no answer? The Lord is near unto them that are of a broken heart.
The Lord is near you, beloved. I don't understand myself the ways of God. I've had my own situations that I've prayed for years about, things that I would think God would want to "fix", but I've seen very little in the way of answers come. The thing that I have seen is that he has done a work in me. Like the young man, through a huge disappointment in my life, with the loss of two children, the Lord has given me a love for the inmates at the jail that we go to. He has helped me to see them through His eyes. I know that I would have never been able to see through His eyes if I hadn't experienced not so much the pain of the trial that we've been through, but the trust that has developed for my Savior over the years because of it. I always hesitate to share anything from my own life..because I don't want to sound like I am trying to brag..there is nothing in and of myself to brag about...but my Lord has carried me. May He receive the glory. He is near to the broken hearted.
What are you facing today? Has someone let you down? Is God allowing you to be stretched beyond anything you could have ever imagined? I promise you, beloved, He is doing a work in you that is GREATER than anything you could have ever imagined. Trusting in Him is at the heart of peace. Knowing Him through the storms will bring hope. I would have never chosen the storm that I was in, but I know being on the other side of it now, that I can look back, and see God's hand in it..I can see that He never left me. I can see that He has strengthened me. God has given me that agape love, that I would have never been able to muster up on my own. That kind of love is a gift..and the gift, was definitely greater than the storm.
Today, may you see Him in every situation. May you sense His presence. May you know the peace that passes all understanding. May He renew you, give you hope, and bring into your heart the love that knows no boundaries..for a lost and hurting world. May you know today that the Lord is near the broken hearted.