God does heal broken hearts!

The Bible portrays God as a healer, not just of the body, but also of the innerman – heart and soul. He is a God Who heals and mends broken hearts. He heals our hurting emotions, and pained memories.
Jesus declared that He had come to heal and mend the brokenhearted. This is Great News!

God heals us by comforting our hearts. Isn’t it amazing that of all the names there are, Jesus chose to call the Holy Spirit “the Comforter”? Observe that Jesus didn’t say “a comforter”. He is the Comforter. That means there ain’t any other comforter in the earth. He took the place of Jesus Christ. He is the One Who comforts us in our brokenness.

The word “comfort” is a compound word from the words “com-” and “fortis.” Com is a word forming element usually meaning “with, together, together with, in combination.” Fortis is a Latin, which means “strong, brave.” Our word fortitude also came from the same root. Putting the two together, the word comfort gives a picture of a union or relationship, which brings strength, solace, help, bravery. So the Comforter is One Who comes alongside or walks together with us, to help, aid, assist, solace and strengthen us, especially in our down moments.

The beautiful thing about this picture is the relationship aspect. True and lasting comfort comes only from the vital relationship we have with the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t offer us help from a distance. No! He’s already come to live within us. He has made Himself one with us. In this way, He feels what we feel. In our pain and affliction, He is also pained and afflicted. He understands perfectly our hard-to-describe struggles. He knows our thoughts before we think them, and our words before we utter them. He is never disconnected from our realities.

Not only does the Comforter share in our own pains and sufferings, He helps us to also share in His strength, comfort, joy, peace and healing. He binds up the brokenhearted; strengthens the weak with much strength in their inner man. To the despairing, He imparts hope for a brighter future. He helps us conquer our shame and disappointment. He gives the ability to rise above our hurt, to forgive and to let go of the painful past.

The dear Holy Spirit comforts hearts that are grieving and mourning the loss of loved ones. How He does it amazes me. Gradually but surely He brings in His peace and restores joy. I have been privileged to experience this myself. When I lost my wife, I couldn’t imagine I would be whole again. I was devastated beyond words. I felt torn apart. My pain was indescribable. It’s been a little over a year now, and looking back, I am so grateful for His healing and inner strength, even though He still has alot of mending to do on my heart.

In the midst of the hurt, the fear, the loneliness, the so many unanswered questions and emotions I couldn’t identify, one thing stood tall for me – the ever-abiding Presence of the Helper deep within me. I was not left alone. He was right there with me in it all. That was so reassuring and took care of my fears. And knowing that He was hurting as much as I was, gave me strength beyond measure. I felt loved and valued. And there were times I could even feel His soothing embrace. His voice is both life and healing to me.

I also found out that, not only does the Comforter relieve our pains and gives us the strength to pull through them, He also changes us in the process. He makes us into comforters. He makes our hearts tender and sensitive to the pains of others. We become more compassionate towards those hurting, especially those who are going through the same thing we have come through.

Apostle Paul aptly captures this amazing transformation when he said this about the Comforter:

“He always comes alongside us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside those who are in any painful trial. We can bring them this same comfort that God has poured out upon us.” (2 Corinthians 1:4, TPT)

Receive the healing comfort of the Divine Comforter today. In Jesus Name

Have you ever been hurt by someone so close to you?
And that got you wondering if their love was for real?
Or have you ever hurt someone special to your heart, and that got you wondering if they would still believe your love for them?
Offenses put a question mark on our love and commitment. And until they’re resolved, that silent question may remain in our minds for long, and affect our friendship and deep sense of love.

Restoration of pure love is a deep desire in every heart. Until we believe we are forgiven, we will not believe we are still loved. And that can stand in the way of our relationship, and affect our sense of security.

This also applies in our relationship with God. We all have sinned and come short of His glory. And that separated us from Him. However, He sent His Son to come and give His life for our sins. And reconcile us back to God. Apostle Paul tells us that Christ has lavishly forgiven us:
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace”
(Ephesians 1:7, ESV)

Christ has already forgiven your sins – past, present and future. He is not holding anything against you any longer. He isnt imputing your sins against you. No!
“It was God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against [men] their trespasses [but cancelling them], and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favor).”
(2 Corinthians 5:19, AMP)

Not only has God forgiven you, He has chosen never to remember your sins ever again:

“I, even I, am He Who blots out and cancels your transgressions, for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”
(Isaiah 43:25, AMP)

… “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”
(Hebrews10:17, NIV)

God’s forgiveness is a fact. However, you must believe and receive that forgiveness in your heart. Because until your heart believes and receives God’s forgiveness, until this reality is settled in your heart, you will feel too unworthy to be the object of His affection. You will feel God couldn’t love someone like you. Until you “feel” His forgiveness you won’t “feel” His love!
Until you sense His forgiveness, you won’t accept His love. For receiving His forgiveness is the first step towards a love walk with God. If you feel unworthy of His forgiveness, you will also feel unworthy of His love. Until you accept God’s mercy, you won’t live in the consciousness of His love.

Could this be what’s standing between you and the sense of God’s love for you?
Why hide under self-condemnation and shame and guilt, when you can come forward, in faith and receive forgiveness for your sins, even right now?
For shame, guilt and fear can’t live together with love. It’s either you live with guilt and shame or you allow God’s love to stump them out. You can’t settle for both.

Perhaps, you’re trying to feel His forgiveness. God doesn’t deal with us along the lines of feelings and emotions. These aren’t reliable. We connect with God through our knowledge and faith. So believe His forgiveness, then reach out and receive it by faith.

I pray for you, that you won’t live another day without the assurance of God’s forgiveness, and a restored sense of His love for you. In Jesus Name

A true sense of security comes only from knowing that we are loved with a love that can never end, that God cares about, even the smallest details of our lives. When we are persuaded that nothing that happens can harm us, the torment of fear is overcome!

My heart was filled with so much joy yesterday at the Church, when we got singing the hymns. I was particularly strengthened by this stanza:

“He will guard my soul, and leave me never;
From His love no power on earth shall severe;
And I know He’ll keep me now and ever
In the hollow of His hand!”

Nothing can separate us from Christ’s enormous love for us.
Not circumstances. Not temptations.
Not angels. Not demons. Not death. Not even all the powers of hell!

If there’s one thing in all the earth worth believing, it is the intensity and eternity of God’s unconditional love for us. God’s boundless love makes all the difference.

Our joy doesn’t come from the fact that there will be no troubles. No, for there will always be troubles!
Our deep sense of joy comes from knowing that we are not alone, that we have help right there in the midst of the the troubles. God is our present help. When? In times of trouble!
Listen to what He says:
“If you’ll hold unto me for dear life,” says GOD, “I’ll get you out of trouble. I’ll give you the best care if you’ll only get to know and trust me. Call me and I’ll answer, be at your side in bad times; I’ll rescue you, then throw you a party.
I’ll give you a long life, give you a long drink of salvation!”
(Psalm 91:14-16, MSG)

Again, God says to you,
“…Do not fear…
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”
(Isaiah 43:1-2, NIV)

We conquer fear when we are convinced that God’s love will never fail us, that His love won’t quit on us in the middle of troubles. And that He will keep us from being harmed; give us the best care; and get us out of any trouble. When we come to know and really believe that God is with us – that we are not alone – we are no longer afraid, no matter what we come up against.

Knowing that God isn’t against us, but for us, and that He isn’t angry with us, but takes a peculiar delight in us, is key to daily victory over fear.
Apostle John the beloved stated this truth in his epistle.
“We need have no fear of someone who loves us perfectly; his perfect love for us eliminates all dread of what he might do to us. If we are afraid, it is for fear of what he might do to us, and shows that we are not fully convinced that he really loves us.”
(1John 4:18, TLB)

The intensity of our fear reveals just how much we are yet to come to grips with the fact of God’s unconditional, unfailing and unending love for us.

Our greatest challenge is not the circumstances that surround us, but our inability to believe that God really loves us – enough to keep us unharmed!

It’s my prayer that you will come to really believe the intensity and the faithfulness of God’s love for you. Then His perfect love will stump out fear, and cause your troubled heart to be at peace. In Jesus Name.

With much love,

Prince Iorungwa Najime

This fear will get him out of bed, early in the morning, push him out on the road. It will get him working himself to his bones, and get him back home so late and so exhausted and worn out. He will neither have time for Me nor his family. This cycle, if not checked, will continue for the rest of his short stay on earth. Man will reduce his life to the pursuit of just his SURVIVAL – what to eat, wear, drive, and where to live.

And when man meets with repeated failures, he becomes frustrated, stressed up, discouraged and depressed. Man begins to see himself as inadequate, deficient and unfit for success. His self-worth drops along with his self-love. And to escape this pain, man resorts to, drugs, violence, sex, alcohol, etc. Man opens himself up to stress related ailments, such as ulcers, cardiac conditions, and all kinds of disorders. And in extreme cases, man takes his life. See how far man’s fear takes him!”
That’s the torment of fear!

This is so revealing!
When you look behind the scene of the fear of lack, want and not having enough, what you will find is a quiet questioning of God’s goodness. “I know God is all powerful, but is He willing to provide for me?” “Does He really care about me?” “Maybe He is not even aware of me.” “Maybe He doesn’t want me to prosper.” “Maybe God is angry with me” “Maybe God is punishing me.”

One of the verses I read most often in the Bible is 1John 4:18, which says that there is no fear in love, but perfect love cast out fear, because fear has torment.”
I like the way the Living Bible puts it.
“We need have no fear of someone who loves us perfectly; his perfect love for us eliminates all dread of what he might do to us. If we are afraid, it is for fear of what he might do to us, and shows that we are not fully convinced that he really loves us.”

Whatever your fears are, the Bible reveals that their root cause is the lack of faith in God’s goodness and willingness to care for you. For if you really trusted God’s goodness and affectionate care for you, you would place in His hand the burden of having to take care of you. That’s what 1Peter 5:7 implies. That also implies that if you don’t believe that God really cares about you, you would carry the burden on yourself. And that’s not what you want to do.

Dear Father, thank you for your love and affectionate care for us. We choose to put our faith in you for our every needs. In Jesus Name

The Creator decided to put within everyone a deep-seated, and overwhelming desire for intimacy. Everyone longs to love and be loved. Everyone craves for a relationship of some sort; we just want to feel connected or belonging. And almost as strong as the overwhelming desire to love and be loved is, the fear of intimacy. The fear of intimacy manifests itself in two basic ways. It may come as the fear of heartbreak or being jilted. And the fear of getting too close than it’s convenient for you; the fear of being trapped in a relationship.

Lots of people are plagued by the fear of being let down or being left in a relationship, especially if they had suffered that before. You know, the thought of going into another relationship that may brake their hearts again can be scary. For me, my greatest fear was that of getting too close for convince. I had loved being independent. And my sense of independence got such a strong grip on me, that I feared that if I got into a serious relationship, I might lose it. And that, for me, was like losing myself. I feared that I would always have to explain what I was doing, where I was and all that. For me, that’s losing my independence. That felt like a trap. And that I dreaded.

While those fears may make you feel like you’re on the safe side – safe from the hurt of heartbreak and safe from being choked – they also keep you from experiencing the joy and the thrill of lovingly intimate relationships. These fears stand in the way of intimacy. They hold you back from pouring the best of yourself into your relationship. Consequently, they also stop you from enjoying the richness of the relationship.

If you must unlock the treasure locked up in any relationship, you must be willing to be vulnerable. As a matter of fact, going into a relationship opens you up to the possibilities of being left and loss of independence. However, you can’t live your life based on your fears. You could either choose to let fear drive your relationship or let faith do the driving.
For me, I knew I had a decision to make, a fear to conquer. And I needed to do it as quickly as it’s possible. Usually, when I face a situation, almost always, the first thing I do is turn to God. Because I know that left on my own, I can so mess things up. ?
So I turned to my Bible. I saw verses like, “He who finds a wife has found a good thing, and has obtained favor from the Lord.”
OK, so a serious relationship that would lead to marriage didn’t look like a curse!
It’s a blessing.
And “the blessing of the Lord makes rich and adds no sorrow.”
It’s getting better. My mind was greatly beginning to shift. I was gaining a new perspective, a brand new way of seeing my relationship. And along with it, my fear of being trapped in a relationship was gradually giving way.
Then I came to a verse like, “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.”
I felt good, because I could trust Him, to guide my choice. I really needed His help. So I asked for it. And I received it!
Today, my wife and I are the best of friends. I love spending lots of time with her. Can’t seem to have enough! ?

You can choose to let God’s Word change your thinking, to overwrite your fears today, and experience the abundant life He came to give in your relationship or you could choose to hold tightly to your fears and also miss out on loving, intimate relationship.
Choose the former.

With much Love.

Emotions have messages. Feelings don’t just happen; they are triggered by your thoughts. This means that different emotions are caused by different thought patterns. Emotions, in a way, are your thoughts finding expressions through your feelings. So your emotions carry messages that reflect what you have been thinking about and how you have been thinking. For instance, when you feel guilty, it means that you have broken one of your principles. It means you have done or said something that you consider as being wrong.
Shame communicates that you think yourself unworthy, because you have done something stupid, hence, not deserving of acceptance or love.
When you feel disappointment, it simply means that an expectation you had was not met or you have been let down. Worry means that you are not adequately prepared for what’s coming. So what message does fear communicate?

Fear communicates a myriad of messages depending on the object of the fear. However, generally, fear communicates inadequacy; “I can’t handle what I am about to face.”
“I don’t have what I need to meet a particular situation.” “It’s well over my power or control.”
Whether it’s the fear of public speaking or fear of death or fear of the future or fear of rejection or fear of not been hot enough, the underlying message is that of being insufficient, incapable, deficient or “not enough” for the situation in question.

God’s plan for your life isn’t to be driven by fear. No! God wants you governed by His Word and Spirit. However, if your life is driven or controlled by fear, I have good news for you. And this is the good news: You can master your fear. That is, no fear is unbeatable. And some fears can be captured with just a little bit of effort. For instance, I have this fear of large bodies of water. I know it’s simply because I don’t have swimming skills. I feel inadequate to meet this challenge. What I need to conquer this fear is just a few swimming lessons. For now, I feel swimming is unnecessary. I will knock out the fear when I feel a real need for swimming. ?
Similarly, the fear of failing exams or interview can be stumped out, if one would only make adequate preparations for it.

I remembered how I overcame the fear of public speaking back then during my undergraduate days. I was so shy of standing before people. I would always feel like “all eyes on me!” It’s a terrible experience you don’t want to go through!
When I started nursing thoughts of speaking to people, helping them with life issues, I knew I had to do something about the fear. I prayed about it, but it didn’t seem to do much. Then I started something more practical. I had read that the best way to conquer your fear was to do what you feared doing. So I took that path. I would deliberately let my colleagues settle down in their seats in those large lecture theatres. I would wait until almost everyone was seated, then stroll in through the front door. I would linger a while in front, while looking straight into those crowd of eyes gazing down at me.
No one really knew what I was doing. I was fighting and daily mastering the fear of standing before large crowds. And I didn’t stop there; I then started making some presentations in the fellowship, and organizing small talks around the campus. I called them Power Seminars. Each seminar gave me more confidence, and a greater desire for another. I kept doing what I had feared doing, though with so much determination and effort. And here am I today!
Have I completely conquered it? I have learnt to feel the fear, but never allow the fear stop me from doing what I need to do. If your fear no longer holds you back nor stops you from giving full expression to your life, then you have conquered your fear.

What’s your fear?
Identity it. Then make practical efforts to master it.
Don’t let that fear govern you. Brake its hold on your thoughts and emotions. Then step out and do what you desire to do.

I shall conclude our discussion on fear in the next post, where I shall be talking about God’s remedy for your fears.

Much Love!