The word "widow" is a surprising one. I don't believe the biblical word refers only to women who have lost their husbands. The Greek word is "one who is lacking a husband." The Hebrew comes from the root meaning "a desolate place."

Have you recently lost or been separated from a mate? Is your spirit so torn with the pain of a broken relationship that you heart is literally in "a desolate place"? Then I feel that the promises God gives to widows are also for you.

I am especially touched and encouraged by what God says in the Book of Isaiah:

"...you shall not (seriously) remember the reproach of your widowhood any more. For your Maker is your husband...For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken, grieved in spirit and heartsore, even a wife (wooed and won) in youth, when she is later refused and scorned, say your God" (Isaiah 54:4,5,6, AMP).

Find great comfort in the fact that the Lord is drawing you even closer to Himself to be His. He is your husband.

Read all of Isaiah, Chapter 54, before you go to sleep tonight. Allow His healing balm to cover you. For although wounds this deep will take time to heal, He will use every ounce of this experience to bring you into deeper intimacy with Him.

Heavenly Father, I thank You for taking away the reproach that losing my mate has brought. Right now I surrender to You all bitterness, anger, rejection and hate. Your Son has come to cleanse and to heal, and He is healing me now. See me through this time of grieving. Help me to believe that I am in Your perfect care; that You are my mate, and that I will be stronger in the end. In Jesus' Name, Amen.