sadness Archives - Marissa Henley

God Heals Broken Hearts {No Matter What Monday}

August 15, 2016 by Marissa Leave a Comment

The Great Breakup of January 1991 swept through Woodland Junior High like a social earthquake. One couple after another toppled, and it seemed no one was immune. Even the long-term couples couldn’t withstand its force. When it was over, all that remained of the junior high dating culture was a bunch of brokenhearted adolescent girls, including me.

At the time, most of us who were dumped thought it was the most horrible heartbreak of our lives. But 25 years later that pain pales in comparison to the heartbreak we know as adults. We watch friends endure illness, job loss, divorce, death. We experience pain and loss ourselves. If we’re paying any attention to the world around us, heartbreak is everywhere.

When sadness threatens to crush us, there is a place for us to seek comfort: in the arms of our Heavenly Father. He cares for our broken hearts. He sees our pain and surrounds us with His love and peace. He will never leave us alone with our sadness. We can trust Him to lovingly mend our lives back together when the destruction of grief blasts through.

This truth isn’t a platitude that sounds nice but has no real power. And it isn’t a band-aid that we put on our grief that makes it all feel better. Grief and loss is still painful, even with the Lord. But as we run to Him with our broken hearts, He gently takes our pain, heals our wounds, and gives us the strength to go on. We can face our grief without despair because we belong to the One who heals broken hearts. And we know that one day, there will be no more broken hearts when we are with Him in heaven (Revelation 21:4).

Psalm 34:18: The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

No matter what you face this week, our Heavenly Father heals broken hearts.

Your Heavenly Father Knows Your Struggles {No Matter What Monday}

March 14, 2016 by Marissa Leave a Comment

Psalm 56:8: You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?

When my daughter was younger, I convinced her that I literally had eyes in the back of my head. She couldn’t see the extra pair of eyes, but all evidence pointed to their existence. I had an uncanny way of knowing what she was doing, even when I wasn’t looking at her. Sometimes she didn’t realize I could see her in the rearview mirror in the car or hear her from the next room. Sometimes I made an assumption based on what I knew about how she behaved. Sometimes it was purely a lucky guess.

As much as my knowledge freaked her out, I think it also brought comfort to my young daughter. There is something reassuring about being known deeply by someone who cares about you.

Psalm 56:8 is one of my favorite verses, because it tells me that God knows my struggles, my sleepless nights, and my tears. He doesn’t know these details of my life because of eyes in the back of His head or because He made a lucky guess. He knows each tear because He created me, redeemed me, cares for me, and rules over every circumstance of my life.

When I spent months away from my family in 2011 battling cancer, I filled many of God’s bottles with my tears. When I was weighed down by sorrow and fear, I found comfort in knowing that God cared about every single tear that I shed.

No matter what you face this week, you have a Heavenly Father who knows your struggles and cares about every tear. How does this truth bring you comfort today?

Jesus Will Wipe Away Every Tear {No Matter What Monday}

March 7, 2016 by Marissa Leave a Comment

If you ask my 10-year-old son what he would wish for if he had three wishes, you’ll hear a couple of the things you’d expect to hear: unlimited Minecraft-playing time, no more homework ever. But he’ll probably include one wish that might surprise you: His wish that Jesus would come back today.

My son can’t wait for Jesus to return. Maybe it’s because he watched me suffer through cancer. He watches me grieve the loss of friends to the disease. We take meals to sick people so often that anytime I take them with me to deliver food to someone, my kids ask if the recipient has cancer.

My 10-year-old understands that he lives in a broken world filled with sickness, sadness and death. But my son also understands that he does not live in this broken world without hope.

He knows there is a perfectly joyous ending coming. He knows that every heartache he feels will be made right when Jesus returns in glory. He knows His Savior will wipe away every tear.

Revelation 21:4 gives us this promise to cling to: He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

No matter what you face this week, your triumphant Savior will one day wipe away your tears.