Mike Fuselier
Have you ever experienced heart failure? I’m speaking of that inner, invisible center of our being where emotions stir, consciousness dwells, and deep thoughts wrestle beneath the surface. Life has a way of shaking the heart, leaving us searching for meaning in the midst of pain.
Lately, my heart has been more than a little shaken—blow after blow of bad news, prayers that seem to go unanswered, hope rising only to be dashed once again. The mind spins endlessly, trying to make sense of circumstances that feel utterly senseless. And from somewhere deep within emerges the ageold question: “Where is God?” Perhaps even harder to ask: “Does He really care?”
Even so, I know the suffering I experience is small compared to the agony endured by so many around the world. When I consider the freedoms and blessings I enjoy, I cringe at my own self-pity. Yet pain has a way of reaching places logic cannot touch. There are wounds that strike so deeply they feel like death itself: losing someone you love, watching a loved one suffer, seeing children harmed by the wickedness of this world. Heart failure.
So what is the cure for this kind of brokenness? How do we continue when the very core of our being feels crushed? The answer is realizing that the heart was never meant to be our foundation. It is fragile and unreliable. Scripture reminds us that “the heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9).
The hope we need— the only remedy for despair and doubts are found in the foundation upon which our lives are built. Jesus said that the one who builds upon the rock will stand when the storms come, while the one who builds upon the sand will collapse beneath them (Matthew 7:24–27). Christ alone is that Rock.
We build upon Him by faith. We may not always see His hand. We may not feel His presence. We may not understand His ways. Yet we trust Him because He is faithful, and because “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).
Anything apart from Christ that we build our lives upon will eventually fail us. Wealth, independence, family, careers, reputation, comfort, even our own philosophies—none of these can bear the full weight of a suffering soul. As the old hymn declares: “On Christ the solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.”
Every earthly thing we place our ultimate hope in apart from Him is unstable ground. And when life begins to shake, what we truly trust in is revealed.
If you live long enough, your heart will fail you. At some point, you will likely face something so painful it feels as though it may destroy you completely. But if your faith rests in the One who calls Himself the First and the Last, the Alpha and Omega, the Resurrection and the Life, the Bright and Morning Star, the Rock of Ages, the Great I Am, the Prince of Peace, the Living Water, the Bread of Life, and the Light of the World, then you possess an unshakable foundation that even a broken heart cannot move.
He is near to “the brokenhearted” and saves “those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18).
He is the Remedy.
