The Only Way to the Broad Place Is to Cry
- caroline borishade
- Jul 15
- 2 min read
We all long for the “broad place.”
That place of freedom. Clarity. Peace. A sense that we are no longer hemmed in by anxiety, guilt, pressure, or pain. We crave the emotional space to breathe again. The spiritual room to stretch out and rediscover who we really are.
But there’s a truth we often resist:
The only way to the broad place… is to cry.
Psalm 118:5 “I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a broad place.”
Not a soft, polished prayer. Not a curated quote or a memorised verse said without heart.
We’re talking about raw, real, gut-level crying out, the kind that comes from the narrow place.
The Narrow Place
Psalm 118 begins with the psalmist in distress; the Hebrew word literally means “a tight space” or “place of confinement.”
Ever felt that?
• Emotionally stuck
• Spiritually dry
• Circumstantially surrounded
• Mentally drained
It’s the hallway where doors don’t seem to open. The phone that doesn’t ring. The prayer that feels like it hits the ceiling and comes back down with silence.
And it’s in that narrow place that the invitation comes:
Call out. Cry. Let it break. Let it rise. Let it be real.
Real Cry, Real Change
God doesn’t ask for polished. He asks for honesty.
The psalmist didn’t say, “I figured it out.” He didn’t say, “I fixed myself.”
He said, “I called.”
He cried out.
And that’s the pivot point.
When we finally stop pretending, performing, or postponing and we let the broken cry rise from our chest, something shifts. Something opens.
The cry is not weakness. The cry is access.
The Broad Place
Then comes the answer:
“The Lord answered me, and set me in a broad place.”
He doesn’t just answer with words.
He answers with movement.
With placement.
With space.
The “broad place” is more than relief. It’s restoration.
It’s the place where your soul exhales.
Where you’re no longer defined by the narrowness of what hurt you, but by the spaciousness of Who healed you.
It’s not earned. It’s not achieved. It’s given in response to the cry.
Today’s Invitation
Where are you tight?
Where are you pressed?
Where have you held back your cry because you thought it was too messy, too weak, too late?
Let today be the day you drop the filter and open the floodgates.
Cry out not just because it hurts, but because He hears.
The cry is the doorway.
The narrow place is not the end.
The Lord answers.
And there is a broad place waiting.
Prayer:
God, I don’t want to fake strength anymore.
I am in a narrow place, and I need You.
Hear my cry, not my performance.
I trust You to answer, to rescue, and to set me in a broad place.
Where I can breathe.
Where I can heal.
Where I can live again.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Written by: Caroline
Founder, Rise & Reclaim
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