Praying “God, break my heart” is not a feel-good prayer. But now more than ever is the time to be bold in our prayer lives. To pray Dangerous Prayers! However, you may be wondering: Why on Earth should you ask God to break your heart?
A LESSON FROM NEHEMIAH
We can learn from the example set for us in the Bible by the prophet Nehemiah, whose heart broke for God's people - his people - in Jerusalem. See, Nehemiah walked away from wealth, comfort, and prestige as the king's cupbearer to help his suffering brothers and sisters rebuild the wall of their city.
Like Nehemiah, is there something in your world that breaks your heart? Nehemiah well understood the tension of knowing God's greatest blessings come from God's greatest breakings. In fact, God gave him a Holy Hurt that took him from a place of comfort to a place of leadership and service to hurting people that God loved. Nehemiah's concern was put in him by Divine Design and, because he embraced this Holy Burden, God used Nehemiah to rebuild the city of Jerusalem!
USING HEARTBREAK TO REBUILD
Through Nehemiah, we see that God breaks our hearts so we can REBUILD our world. Sometimes, God's breakings come from a place of pain, but they can also come from a place of abundance. Likewise, maybe you had a great childhood with Christian parents, you went off to a good college and now you are climbing the corporate latter. That's great, but that doesn't mean God can't break your heart. Your success actually means that, out of the depth of gratitude in your heart, you can be broken on behalf of the people of God. For you, asking God, "break my heart" may mean that you don't forget where you come from or the church that poured into you through the process.
When you pray this Dangerous Prayer, your heart will break for the things that break God's heart. And when He does, thank him for that heartbreak because it allows you to care for the people that He loves! Too much hangs in the balance between a broken heart and what God can do with it. You may be afraid to pray “God, break my heart” but, we know we can’t afford not to pray this Dangerous Prayer. It's better to hurt with a purpose than to exist without one! So, whether you use your pain or your abundance, we pray that you'll use your Holy Heartbreak to be a good steward of all that God has given you to work for His purpose today!
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
For further study, we encourage you to check out the following content from Liquid Church's series, Dangerous Prayers: