KEVIN MATTATALL: The wounded heart

I have discovered something that we all have in common.

We all have to deal with internal issues in the heart that hinder us from finding greater external success.

In the Bible Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

Do you think that the internal keeper of your heart has kept you safe? Has your heart been able to protect you from all brokenness, hurts, wounds, bruises and holes?

I don’t know everybody but I haven’t met anyone yet who hasn’t experienced some level of pain and hurt in their heart.

We cry out to God in hope for a better life but our wounds often cause us to dwell in the wilderness of despair.

What’s it like to live with a wounded heart?

Well, let’s pretend that your heart is like a 10-inch plastic cup. Three inches from the bottom of the cup you punch a hole. Now, how many inches of water could I pour into that cup before the cup would reveal that there’s a problem and how much water would I need to make the cup feel full?

Let’s take your heart and you want to live a greater life. You want love, joy, peace, confidence, happiness and freedom but you always seem to leak at a certain place.

Is what’s leaking out the problem or does the leak point to a past hurt that’s never been healed?

We can make the mistake and think what’s pouring out is the problem. Drugs, alcohol, anger, rage, jealousy, envy, over controlling everyone but the real problem is your heart has a hole in it that needs to be healed.

“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

As you’re reading this you may recall the moment your issue happened. That moment of hurt when your heart police failed to protect you from abuse, lies and mistreatment. You trusted someone to protect you and they were the very ones that hurt you.

Now when someone tries to pour their love into you it works for a while, until it reaches the hole of some past offence. Then you scream, “You don’t really love me!” The truth is because of the hole you don’t really love yourself.

You never fully feel loved because you have a hole three inches from the bottom. You still seek to find love hoping the next person will love you but nothing seems to work.

The trouble is all the love in the world can’t fill you because of the hole that needs to be healed.

The good news is there is hope. There is a God in heaven who is a master in open-heart surgery.

Psalm 147:3 “He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds.”

Will you take the risk and open your heart to Him?

Romans 10:9 “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Believing that Jesus is Lord has to happen in your heart. It’s not to be healed in your hand, your foot or your head but God is faithful to heal where the real issues are found, deep, deep down within your heart.

It’s your heart that needs to feel His touch, His help and His love. Once your broken heart is healed, once the holes have been filled in by His love and forgiveness you start to feel complete, content, secure, happy and even joyful.

Now rather than seeking to be filled with good things in the endless cycle of feeling empty, you rise up.

The Lord’s love passes the three-inch mark, then four and five and onward and upward until you are living an overflowing abundant life.

I pray that you discover a life worth living and may your heart be healed and your life be blessed, I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

God bless you all.

Kevin Mattatall is the pastor of the Cape Breton Christian Fellowship Church.