Nothing hurts quite like a heartbreak. Truth is people will always fail you and let you down. Eventually, promises are broken, feelings are hurt, someone’s end of a deal isn’t held up and the other person feels the pain of being let down.

If you know me, you know I strongly dislike sitting in negative emotions. I sometimes struggle to give myself permission to feel feelings. So if you are like me, here is the permission you don’t need from someone that doesn’t matter. It’s okay to sit in the pain and it’s okay to feel your feelings. God gave us emotions! Jesus felt emotions – especially sad. The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35 “Jesus wept”. Although we should acknowledge our feelings, we shouldn’t allow our feelings to be the leader of our decisions. In tense situations, hastily acting out on emotion can lead to non-fun consequences.

If you’ve ever read the Psalms you know David was a man who felt very strong emotions.

I am worn out from sobbing. All night I flood my bed with weeping, drenching it with my tears. My vision is blurred by grief; my eyes are worn out because of all my enemies. Psalm 6:6-7

The verse is highly emotional. Throughout his life he allowed his emotions and feelings to lead him to make some awful choices.

The only One who will never fail you or let you down is God. The Lord knows our hearts better than you know yourself. God created your heart – he filled them with your passions, talents and desires. He knows what is best for us; and when the world will let us down we can run to him arms wide open. Through the darkest valley he is holding your hand.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4

I’ve gone through a few different heartbreaks in my life. When I was 16 years old, my parents divorced and my father moved out. Throughout the next few years I grew further from my dad and watched him grow closer to my step siblings. My heart broke as I watched my dad do normal dad things with my step siblings. I’ve also felt the hurt from a breakup, from the type of relationship where you start talking about what your future together would look like. The breakup that felt like you didn’t think God knew what he was doing because you had already planned what your perfect future looked like. Now that I’m the other side of that breakup – I can promise you God is faithful and trustworthy and He knows what He is doing. 

It took getting my heart broken a few times to realize where I had placed my identity and sense of belonging. I quickly realized in those moments I didn’t have my identity in Christ but in that relationship. And that my Heavenly Father would be able to provide for me and love me more than my earthly father can. 

If you’re hurting, you can rest in the fact God knows your heart. Jesus experienced heartbreak while on earth, he knows the pain. If you feel like God doesn’t hear you, or see you – he does. Even when we don’t feel like it, God is at work. 

I lift up my eyes to the mountains where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip he who watches over you will not slumber; Psalm 121:1-3