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Psalm 34:18 "The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."

Often times when we are hurting, the first place we go to is a trusted friend who will hold our hand while we tell our tale of woe, or just wrap us up in their arms until the weeping subsides. There is something about talking it out that helps… even if our friend doesn’t have a definitive answer. It’s the knowing that we’ve been heard.

But there are other times, late at night when we are all alone, that we find ourselves crying in the darkness. The pain and the sobs wrack our body until we can barely move. In these bleakest hours of total isolation, seemingly there is no one to talk to, no one to hold us and help us bear our burdens. I think these are the hardest moments of all to bear.

Here is where we find the promise of the Lord to be close to us. Here is where He gathers our shattered dreams and crushed spirit, if we will but talk to Him. So I begin – aloud. I lift up my tear-stained, swollen eyes to Heaven and ask Him to surround me with Himself, closer than any friend’s arms here on earth could hold me. Sometimes I’ll just cry and cry. Sometimes I will whisper my heartbreaks, my disappointments. Sometimes I yell out “I don’t understand!” He doesn’t turn His back, but holds me closer and asks me to trust Him. He asks me to have faith in Him. Then He begins to calm the raging storm inside me, and eventually my spirit is quieted and I can make it through the next hour, or the next day.

Certainly God works through many people in our lives when we need comfort and healing -- He will use their arms to hold us, their ears to listen. But the next time, read afresh His promise from Psalm 34:18 and take Him at His word. See what happens when you first talk to Him in prayer.

"Word from Scotland" from Sandy Shaw

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