Near the Broken Heart

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 232, Near the Broken Heart.

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

Let that sit for a moment. Don't rush past it. The LORD is near. Not "will be near" — is near. Right now. Right in the middle of whatever pain you are carrying today, or whatever pain kept you awake last night when the room got too quiet. The Scripture does not say He will draw close once you get better, once you smile again, once the faith comes back strong. He is near now. And that nearness does not depend on how you feel — it depends on who He is. God does not change His address when your strength changes.

Look at who receives that nearness. The brokenhearted. The crushed in spirit. Not the strong. Not the ones who have it all together. The heart that the world tends to look away from — that is precisely the heart that draws God's attention. What others move away from, He moves toward. You have not been overlooked. You have been found. There is an enormous difference between those two things.

And He does not draw near as someone who has never known suffering. Jesus — the Son of God himself — was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He does not send sympathy from a distance, from some safe place far removed from pain. He came. He felt in his own body what it is to carry a broken heart. So when He draws near to you in your suffering, He knows exactly what He is touching. It is not pity — it is true companionship.

And the verse goes further still. He does not merely comfort — He saves. To save is an active word. It means to rescue, to pull someone up from the depths, to move decisively on what feels impossible to move. His presence with you is not passive. It carries power. The God who is near is the same God who acts.

There is a beautiful paradox here, and I don't want you to walk past it. The crushed spirit — the thing that feels like weakness, the thing you might be ashamed to feel — is the very condition that makes room for God to work. When we stop leaning on our own strength, His hand has room to hold us up. The weakness you want to hide may be the very place He most wants to enter.

And now — the call. Before breakfast today, think of one person close to you whose heart is broken right now. It might be someone you know is going through something heavy. It might be someone who has gone quiet, who has pulled away. Send them a short message — you don't need answers, you don't need theology, you don't need to fix anything. Just say: "I am here. I am thinking of you." That is enough. Because sometimes God uses two thumbs on a phone screen to tell someone they are not alone. Be God's nearness to someone today.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.