When Your Heart Is Broken: John 14:18

When Your Heart Is Broken: John 14:18

Love your Legacy Devotional ~ By Tay

Opening Prayer

Jesus, there is a young place in me that still waits by the window.

It learned early what it feels like to be the one not chosen, not picked up, not remembered. Speak to that young place today. Tell it the truth it has been waiting to hear.

You will not leave me. You are coming to me.

Amen.

Scripture

John 14:18

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Reflection

Every child knows the feeling of waiting for a ride that is late.

You sit on the front steps with your bag packed. Cars go by that are not yours. The street gets quieter. Other kids get picked up, doors slamming, laughter fading down the road, and you are still there, watching, doing the math on whether someone forgot. Even when the car finally comes, something in you remembers the waiting.

Jesus spoke our verse to grown men who were about to feel like those children.

It was the night before the cross. He had just told His disciples He was leaving, and you can feel the panic rising in the room. They had given up everything to follow Him. He was their teacher, their protector, their whole world rearranged. And now He was talking about going away.

Into that fear, He says the most tender thing: “I will not leave you as orphans.”

An orphan is not just someone without parents. An orphan is someone with no one coming for them. No one watching the road. No one whose love means you will not be left on the steps. Jesus looks at His frightened friends and says, that will never be your story. Not with Me.

“I will come to you.” Not “I will send instructions.” Not “I will check in from a distance.” I will come. To you. Personally. The orphaned heart in you is seen, and God comes close.

Maybe your orphan-heart was formed in childhood, in a house where love was unpredictable or absent. Maybe it was formed later, in a marriage that ended, a friendship that dissolved, a church that wounded you. Whenever it was formed, the feeling is the same: the quiet certainty that you are the kind of person people leave.

That certainty is a lie, and this verse is its undoing. You are not the kind of person God leaves. You are the kind of person He comes to. The car is already on the road. The One who loves you is watching for you, not the other way around.

You do not have to stay on the steps anymore.

Journaling

  1. When did your orphan-heart first learn to wait by the window, and what is it still waiting for?

    You might start with something like: I was nine and my dad was always late, and some part of me is still sitting on those steps.

  2. What would it mean for you to believe, really believe, that God is coming to you, not just watching from far away?

    It might be something small and honest, like: it would mean I could stop performing for love and just open the door.

  3. What is one way you can practice letting yourself be found today, instead of hiding the young, waiting place in you?

    You could gently say: I will tell one trusted person how I actually feel, or I will pray out loud like a child who expects an answer.

Closing Prayer

Jesus, thank You for coming to me.

Thank You for not leaving me on the steps. Heal the young, waiting place in my heart with the truth that I am Yours, I am seen, and I am never, ever forgotten.

I am getting up from the steps today. I am Yours.

Need Prayer? We would love to pray for you.

Amen.

Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.