7 Comforting Verses to Read if Valentine's Day Is Full of Heartache

1. Psalm 34:18 - God is close to you when you’re brokenhearted.

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” – Psalm 34:18

When your heart hurts, it can feel like God has abandoned you. You may wonder where God is. But this verse assures that God is actually close to you when you’re brokenhearted. Notice that God doesn’t wait for you to be healed to come close to you. God comes close when Valentine’s Day reminds you of what you’ve lost or never had, so you’re brokenhearted and struggling with difficult emotions and a spirit that feels crushed. You may feel like romantic disappointment has taken away important things like your confidence, your joy, and your sense of being chosen. God sees that loss. He doesn’t minimize it or compare it to someone else’s pain. God comes near to you, personally.

This verse also reminds you that God doesn’t just watch you while you’re in pain; he saves you by helping you in the middle of your pain. God may do so in a variety of ways, including giving you strength to get through each day, sending you peace in the middle of grief, or helping you grow more hopeful. If your heart is broken this Valentine’s Day, you can count on God coming close to you, ready to help you.

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2. Isaiah 41:10 - God will strengthen and help you.

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” – Isaiah 41:10

Heartache often brings fear into your life along with it. You may fear being alone forever, or that you’ll never be able to trust another person again, or that something is wrong with you that can’t be fixed. This verse speaks directly to those fears with strong encouragement directly from God. God tells you not to fear because he is with you. Even though your heart is full of pain, God’s love for you is much stronger than the heartache you’re feeling. God’s presence is the reason you can keep going, even when your romantic life is painful. You can notice God’s presence with you and connect with him to receive his powerful love, anytime and anywhere.

Valentine’s Day may highlight what you wish were different in your life, and in the process, it can make you feel dismayed. But God responds by encouraging you not to be dismayed, because he will be personally involved in your life. God promises to give you strength when yours runs out, to help when you don’t know what to do, and to support when you feel like you might collapse under the weight of your emotions. You don’t have to hold yourself together perfectly, because God is already holding you.

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3. Matthew 11:28 - Jesus welcomes you with your weariness.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” – Matthew 11:28

It can be exhausting to go through romantic disappointment. Carrying unmet expectations, loneliness, and emotional pain can wear you down in ways that other people don’t see. Jesus understands what it’s like to be exhausted. He doesn’t tell you to toughen up and carry on despite being weary. Instead, Jesus invites you to come to him just as you are – weary and burdened – and he will give you the rest you need. Jesus modeled the importance of rest during his earthly life. So, this Valentine’s Day, plan to rest with Jesus.

Let go of any pressure you may have placed on yourself to feel fine when you’re not, and be honest in prayer with Jesus about how you really feel. Jesus invites you into a kind of rest where you can stop trying to hide your pain while also receiving his complete and unconditional love for you. You don’t have to pretend like you’re feeling fine. You can simply come to Jesus and let him help you.

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4. Jeremiah 29:11 - God’s plans for you are bigger than this season.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11

When your romantic relationships haven’t gone the way you hoped, it’s easy to worry that your future is worse than you imagined. But this encourages you to expect the best from God, not the worst. God’s plans for your future are good, even though you don’t feel good right now because you’re heartbroken. You can trust God to lead you into a good future by relying on him to help you heal and find more love in your life. Your current heartache doesn’t cancel God’s good plans for your life, and it also doesn’t mean you’ve missed all your chances to enjoy a healthy romantic relationship.

This verse reminds you that God sees the whole story of your life, even when you’re stuck in a hard chapter. Your future is not defined by what your life is like this Valentine’s Day. God will still lead you toward hope. You may not understand right now how your future romantic life will turn out, but that’s okay. God promises you that day by day, he will give you hope and lead you into a good future that he knows will help you prosper.

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5. Psalm 147:3 - God can heal what feels permanently broken.

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” – Psalm 147:3

Some wounds feel like they’ll never fully heal, and heartache can definitely feel that way. If your trust was broken and your dreams were shattered in a previous romantic relationship, you probably have significant emotional scars from what you went through. This verse points out that God himself – your loving Heavenly Father – personally heals brokenhearted people and binds up their wounds. He can do that for you if you ask him to do so. You can trust God to care for you well.

The phrase “binds up their wounds” suggests patient, careful attention from God. When you ask God to heal you, you can be confident that God knows exactly how you’re hurting and exactly how to heal you. The process of healing will come over time as you work with God to restore your heart to a healthy state. This Valentine’s Day, you don’t have to be healed already; you just have to be open to God’s healing work.

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6. Romans 8:28 - God is working for good even when you can’t see it.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28

It’s hard to see God’s good work in your life when you’re feeling lonely and rejected around Valentine’s Day. While this verse is often misunderstood as a promise that God will give those who live for him easy lives, it’s actually a promise that God will bring good out of everything that happens in the lives of those who love him. So, even though you’ll sometimes suffer in this fallen world, you can trust that God will always bring something good out of your suffering, because God is always good, and he is always at work redeeming what’s broken in this world.

God is able to take everything that has gone wrong for you romantically and use it to bless you with a stronger character and faith. This verse points out that God works “in all things” – every situation you go through, even the most painful ones – to fulfill good purposes. Even when you can’t see the progress, God is working behind the scenes of your life to help you. You can trust God to protect you from dangers you can’t see and prepare you for blessings you don’t know about yet that are coming in your future.

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7. Ephesians 3:17-18 - You can enjoy a love that never fails.

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” – Ephesians 3:17-18

On Valentine’s Day, which is focused on romantic love, this verse highlights a different kind of love. Romantic love is temporary and limited, while the love of Christ – God’s love – lasts forever and has no limits. These verses describe the love of Christ as so wide, long, high, and deep that it goes beyond what’s easy to grasp. Christ’s love has no limits! If you feel like you’re not loved around Valentine’s Day because you don’t have a date, look at these four dimensions of the love Jesus gives you in a relationship with him: wide enough to cover your past, long enough to last your entire life, high enough to lift you out of your discouragement, and deep enough to reach you in your lowest circumstances.

Human love is a gift, but it was never meant to be what you rely on the most. God wants you to be “rooted and established” in his love first. When you base your worth on the fact that you’re one of God’s beloved children, you can see that the presence or absence of a romantic partner doesn’t change your value at all. The reality is that you’re loved completely and unconditionally by your Creator and Heavenly Father. 

In conclusion, Valentine’s Day happens for just 24 hours, even though it can feel like much longer when you’re in pain. Remember that the sun will set on Valentine’s Day, but God’s mercies will be there for you in fresh ways the next morning. You don’t have to try to pretend that you’re not feeling heartache right now. You just need to be honest with God, trust him to help you heal, and receive his love for you. On Valentine’s Day and beyond, God’s love is more than enough to carry you through!

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