How to Get Rid of Holiday Heartbreak!
Christmas is almost here!
Christmas is often a symbol of joy and spending time with family, but it can also be a time that brings up painful memories, feelings of loneliness, or hurts. Dealing with heartbreak around the holidays can feel especially painful.
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!
Some people have been nursing hurts and wounds for years, and anytime they begin to see success, the enemy pulls them back into fear or 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! Dealing with heartbreak is the only way to move past it. Holding onto it will keep you stuck where you are at.
“Bitterness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
—Joanna Weaver
If we live in a place of hurt, how can we truly impact others?
Sometimes you have to confront the enemy of negativity, bad attitudes, and emotional strongholds that keep you hostage.
Go HERE for some powerful verses for breaking down strongholds.
In order to regain our joy, we have to give our hurts to God and allow Him to heal us—spirit, soul, and body.
Steps to Get Rid of Holiday Heartbreak:
1. Pray.
Pray. Ask God to help you sort through your hurt. Hurt usually leads to offense, then anger, then paybacks through disloyalty and betrayal. Which phase of the pathway are you at? God always helps us see things through His eyes. It minimizes the offense and helps us see our lack of innocence in the situation.
I once saw a Facebook post where a Christian was calling out another Christian for saying some offensive things and for judging a situation unfairly and being insensitive. Of course, people began to pile on the offenses, insults, judgments, and suggested paybacks to justify their friend’s hurt. It was clear that they were all guilty of the very thing that they had accused the other person of doing in the first place.
Prayer helps us see things as they are, not as we justify ourselves to “feel.” It’s much easier to forgive others when we realize just how much forgiveness we need. Pray and then choose to forgive just as God chose to forgive us through Jesus.
2. Forgive.
Forgiveness is different from compromise. We cannot compromise what God says about a subject in order to “love” someone. We love the person, and we can embrace a person but not embrace sin as acceptable. But first, we must get the plank out of our own eyes.
Once we choose to forgive by faith in the work of Jesus, then we have the right mind and heart toward the other person. If we need to talk out the situation, then the Holy Spirit will show us how to go about it in a spirit of love and show us the right timing.
Some situations are better left unspoken—when we have harbored something in our hearts, we can deal with God alone. Then there are times we must go and talk through situations with others in a true spirit of humility and desire for reconciliation. We must hear how and when to do this from the Holy Spirit. Regardless of how other people may get offended or react in life, we can stay free from offense when we honor God and the people He made and loves. The golden rule to “do unto others the way you would want them to do unto you” is still golden.
You Can Be Free from Heartbreak
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! Dealing with heartbreak hurts, but it is important to face it and let God heal you.
Pray this prayer with me today:
God, I give you my heartbreak, my disappointment, my unmet expectations, high standards, and everything I have held against the people around me. Forgive me for expecting others to love perfectly. Forgive me for the unforgiveness and bitterness I have. I have used them as a wall of protection. I want that wall to come down. I want to be free to love and be loved in return! I love You, Jesus! I cast my cares on You. Heal my heart and renew my joy. Amen!
Merry Christmas!
