1. What does a broken heart feel like?
A broken heart is this horrible ache, deep in your chest, it is more emotional than physical, and yet it is a very physical pain. When a heart gets broken it feels as if it will never return to a normal state, and that the pain may go on forever. A broken heart may make one feel hopeless, helpless, and horribly depressed.
2. How do you respond to the knowledge that God gave His Son specifically for your broken heart?
I cannot help but feel undeserving of such a loving sacrifice. I look at me - a broken, fallen, sinner, and then I look at Jesus - the perfect Son; the comparison shows that God loves me more than I can comprehend, for reasons beyond what my mind can grasp...I find myself in awe that God loves me so much!
3. In what ways do people become self-protective in response to a broken heart?
I like the picture Beth painted in a previous study - Loving Well- A picture of a heart broken and bruised, and instead of letting God heal it, we wrap it in duct tape, and when it still hurts we just keep adding layer after another layer. In a short amount of time, we have it so covered in duct tape, you cannot tell it is a heart, and no love is allowed in and no love comes out. In other words, we stop allowing people to get close and we think that if we don't love again, we won't be hurt again...we stop really living emotionally!
4. What is different about Christ's way of healing a broken heart as apposed to the natural human response to protect self?
God's love and peace can heal our broken heart and use that hurt to bring about something good in our life and possibly the lives of others. If we allow Him to come in and work on us, He can and will heal our brokenness and restore us to a point of living more than we did before!
