Dealing with Heartbreak
By Drenda Keesee
Hurt can reveal itself in many ways: heartbreak, unforgiveness, disappointment, depression, anger, and even disgust!
If people have hurt you in the past, God wants to heal you from ALL of those emotional wounds.
Psalm 34:18 (NIV) tells us, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
Past hurts don’t define future possibilities!
I remember going to speak at a women’s conference a few years back and being totally caught off guard by the situation I walked into. As soon as I arrived, the pastor’s wife began to tell me how they had wanted somebody else to come and speak, but since she wasn’t available, they had asked me.
Wow, what abode of encouragement!
I smiled politely and told her how happy I was to be there. As the service began, I stepped up to speak and looked across the auditorium. What I found was a room full of scowling women with their arms crossed!
I hadn’t said a word yet, but they seemed resolute to be unhappy. I could feel the emotional suppression over the room—the women were emotionally burned out by circumstances, offenses, and pain. They were defeated believers with no joy, no peace, and no provision.
To anyone coming in from the outside, it was a terrible representation of God and what being a believer in Christ looks like.
If we live in a place of hurt, how can we be effective in our own lives or in impacting others?
My family and friends know I don’t back down easily. So, the more they pouted, the more passionately I preached!
Sometimes you have to confront the enemy of negativity, bad attitudes, and emotional strongholds that are keeping people hostage.
Go HERE for some powerful verses on breaking down strongholds.
Anyway, the Lord began to download things to me as I was speaking to those women.
There was a night-and-day difference between the first session and the next. By the end of the event, 90 percent of the women came forward for prayer.
Women were crying, laying hands on each other, and hugging. You could feel God’s Spirit healing women all over the room!
There are people who have been nursing hurts and wounds for years, and anytime they begin to see success, the enemy pulls them back into fear, discouragement, and causes them to lose the joy of their salvation.
When we hold on to emotional disappointments, offense, heartbreak, and bitterness toward others, we only end up hurting ourselves!
“Bitterness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” —Joanna Weaver
In order to regain our joy, we have to give our hurts to God and allow Him to heal us—spirit, soul, and body.
Hebrews 12:1 (NIV) says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
When we hold on to hurt, it hinders us from fulfilling our God-given destinies.
Jesus wants you to be free from those tormenting emotions. He already paid the price for your emotional healing; all you have to do is receive it!
Pray this prayer with me today:
God, I give you my heartbreak, my disappointed expectations, and everything I have held against the people around me. I love you, and I cast my cares on you. Heal my heart and renew my joy. Amen!
~ Drenda
Are you looking for a good church? Be sure and listen on Saturday evening or catch the 3 services on Sunday for Faith Life Church!
Drenda Keesee’s contagious zeal and humorous personal experiences help make her ministry of spiritual, emotional and relational wholeness one that will bless your life and spark a new fire in your spirit.
A wife of over 30 years and a mother of five children, Drenda has ministered at churches, seminars, and conferences, and through the mediums of television and radio, for more than 20 years.
Her books, The New Vintage Family, Better Than You Think, and She Gets It are available wherever books are sold. In these heartfelt books, Drenda shares her personal journey and the life lessons that have brought her to where she is today, as well as practical answers that all people need to live a joyful life.
Drenda and her husband Gary founded Faith Life Now, a ministry designed to spread the message of freedom in the areas of finances, faith, marriage, and family. Tune in for their weekly messages here. Faith Life Now hosts conferences worldwide, and sponsors both Fixing the Money Thing, which Drenda co-hosts with her husband Gary, and Drenda.
Through their own life experiences, the Keesees have found the principles from God’s Word to be powerful and effective. At one point, Drenda was a young, suicidal feminist with no hope of ever being “good enough” for her own standards of perfection. She never wanted the “inconvenience” of a husband or children, and she was on her own path to success. But the stress of trying to achieve perfection and perform for love left her broken and used. She had success, but it was nothing compared to the pain and loneliness it had also brought.
That’s when God got a hold of her heart. It was there—at her lowest point—that she found the One who accepted and loved her, faults and all. Since that transformation, Drenda has had a passion to reach women who find themselves where she once was.
She married Gary after attending college, and there she found herself in a personal boot camp of sorts. She says, “I cried and told God, ‘I can do anything but be a wife and mother.’” She committed to learning how to do it God’s way. Through the many years of raising their children and struggling to make ends meet, Drenda learned from their mistakes. “I didn’t know how to be a wife and mother, but God saved our marriage, taught us how to parent our children for success, showed us how to have financial success, and then irony of all ironies, He called us to ministry.” It’s truly because of these life experiences that Drenda can now share so many insightful principles for people who are now going through the same struggles.
