The Cry of a Broken Heart

This post is for the hurting soul. It’s for the broken-hearted, weary child of God. At times, no words can be found as the confusion within fogs the lens of truth. When the battle of body and Spirit wages its violent war, we may be left feeling wounded and weak as our faith is shaken, our emotions are unraveled, and our earthly securities are stripped. Oh, but there is a sweetness found in this place of utter brokenness – when we have nothing left but Christ. This is where I am learning to rest. Whether your life is broken like mine or you are enjoying a season of comfort, my prayer for you is the same – that you would desire and know Christ as your all. Because in the end, it is better to be broken in this life and beautifully whole in the next, than unscathed now and broken for all eternity.

Right now, I can’t make sense of much. But I would like to share a puritan prayer from the Valley of Vision that has given me words to pray out of my weakness. This is my broken heart’s cry in the strength of the Spirit. May Christ be glorified in my weakness.

Peril

“Sovereign Commander of the universe,

in a felt spiritual darkness.

My heart is full of evil surmisings and disquietude,

and I cannot act faith at all.

My heavenly pilot has disappeared,

and I have lost my hold on the rock of ages;

I sink in deep mire beneath storms and waves,

in horror and distress unutterable.

Help me, O Lord,

to throw myself absolute and wholly on thee,

for better, for worse, without comfort, and all but hopeless.

Give me peace of my soul, confidence, enlargement of mind,

morning joy that comes after night heaviness;

Water my soul richly with divine blessings;

Grant that I may welcome thy humbling in private

so that I might enjoy thee in public;

Give me a mountain top as high as the valley is low.

Thy grace can melt the worst sinner, and I am as vile as he;

Yet thou has made me a monument of mercy,

a trophy of redeeming power;

In my distress let me not forget this.

All-wise God,

Thy never-failing providence orders every event.

sweetens every fear,

reveals evil’s presence lurking in seeming good,

brings real good out of seeming evil,

makes satisfactory what I set my heart upon,

to show me what a short-sighted creature I am,

and to teach me to live by faith upon they blessed self.

Out of my sorrow and night

give me the name Naphtali – ‘satisfied with favor’ –

help me to love thee as thy child,

and to walk worthy of my heavenly pedigree.”

– The Valley of Vision (pg.101)