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Brokenness, Disillusionment and Redemptive Growth

As you settle in to listen to this podcast, maybe you’re facing difficult times and you wonder how God can still have a plan for your messy, hurting, perhaps disillusioned life.

What about your loved ones, or those in the neighborhood around you?

There’s so much brokenness that it can feel like anything you do to help is like a drop in the ocean.

I certainly have had several moments this past season, months, days even, of being broken, disillusioned, angry, all the emotions that can go with hearing terrible stories of betrayal, clergy abuse, child abuse, adult children being estranged from parents, parents being estranged from their adult children, walking many from sadness over deep wounds from past relationships, festering with anger, guilt and shame.

This service of working with broken people that God has called us to, (and me specifically these past couple of years as a Biblical pastoral Counselor), well, seeing and hearing the sadness, can wear you thin at times, and I go running to the feet of Christ over and over again, asking him to make sense of how humanity can be so vicious and destroy one another.

Of course Jesus came to die for all of us, and in fact was broken, beaten, bruised and yes, He wept.

So He knows the anguish and grief that can tow us under!

The LORD has always been close to those who are crushed and broken, right from the very start.

Brokenness Doesn’t Distract Or Hinder God!

God extends endless compassion and love to us, even when we are feeling absolutely crushed.

When we don’t want anyone to see our brokenness, our shame, He is always close, never with judgment but always with kindness. The kind of kindness that heals.

The question is: “Does brokenness have any purpose?”

Or is it a hindrance to God’s plans and promises?

Can God Turn Our Brokenness Into Something Beautiful?

In Matthew 26, Jesus had His last meal with the disciples before He went to suffer on the cross.

Now, even though I’ve read this passage many times, something rich recently stood out.

“As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take and eat it; this is my body’.” Matthew 26:26.

First, Jesus took the bread,

Then He blessed it,

And then He broke it.

Now, I thought to myself — “Why would He not first take the bread, break it and then bless it?”

There’s A Purpose To Why Jesus Did It This Way

The blessing comes before the breaking, because this was the theme of Jesus’ life:

Jesus was blessed by the Father and the Spirit during His baptism (Matthew 3:16-17).

Jesus endured the brokenness on The Cross (Luke 23:26-39).

And, Jesus conquered death through His resurrection and then ascended to the right hand of the Father.

This is the greatest blessing for believers because we are united with Christ and fully restored to God! (Ephesians 1:20; Ephesians 2:4-6).

Blessed

Then Broken

Then Blessed again.

That’s the pattern.

Maybe You’re In A Season Where You Feel More Broken Than Blessed?

I understand. But because God has blessed us with His Son, every ounce of brokenness we experience on this side of eternity is pointing us toward the blessing of heaven, where we will be reunited with Christ, if we trust in Him.

God also redeems our current brokenness as a means of blessing others who are also broken (2 Corinthians 1:4).

We Can Know With Confidence

That When We Endure Brokenness And Pain,

There Isn’t An Ounce Of Our Brokenness

That Is Not Under The Blessing Of God!

This Is A Hard Truth To Grasp. It may even be something we want to reject because it feels unfair or even cruel!

I agree that it can feel that way. Even Jesus Himself agrees. Just a few verses after the Last Supper, He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane and cried out, “I am deeply grieved to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38a, CSB).

We don’t have to dismiss our feelings when it comes to our brokenness.

Even Jesus felt the full range of His emotions before His most broken moment.

We can come before God in humility with our raw, honest emotions.

We can bring our brokenness to Him. We can trust that Jesus is with us, NOW.

And, we can look to The Cross and the Empty Tomb — knowing that though we experience brokenness, Jesus overcame it!

Brokenness Isn’t The End For Us!

Blessed, then broken, then blessed again.

LORD, give us the grace to endure this reality.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Jesus, who was blameless and pure, had scars that remained after his resurrection.

Jesus’ scars were not a flaw. They’re a reminder that even the Savior of the world has experienced brokenness.

They also give us a tangible answer to our doubts, like they did for Thomas.

In a moment of faithlessness, doubt and brokenness, God meets Thomas with compassion and kindness.

Jesus’ Scars Are A Demonstration Of The Lengths He Went To For Us, a sacrifice given to restore hope in a broken world full of broken people.

And the same hands that were nail-scarred?

They have our very names written on them as a promise that God will not ever forget or forsake us (Isaiah 49:16).

Just like a scar, they’re permanently written as a reminder of God’s commitment to us, no matter how broken we feel.

Very Few See This Bleak Moment For What It Really Is!

It’s a chance to see their need for something that is beyond themselves.

But my friend, this can be a moment where the soul can cross over from its own empty silence, into an expected quiet that is alive with His presence.

It silences the anguish, the anxious restlessness into a calm and still place of peace. It’s as if the soul finds that in this dark place, there is a secret well of sweet water, and it springs up and overflows with light and life.

LEARNING TO PASS INTO THIS

PLACE OF THE SPIRIT AND ALLOWING GOD

TO KEEP YOUR SOUL IN REFRESHING

SILENT TRANQUILITY IS A TRUE ACT

OF THE MATURING BELIEVER.

God Put You On Earth In Your Exact Place For His Specific Purpose, and you are living in that purpose, even when you don’t know it.

Your soul may be grumbling and resisting, but you are living the story that God is ready to reveal to you.

God is a lot bigger than you expect Him to be.

He’s a lot bigger than your circumstances.

He is a God of detail.

He is deeply involved in the small details of your life, but He has a “bigger yes” for you.

Your true glory is the revelation of His splendor, his amazing ability to create redemptive “Resurrection moments” revealed in you day by day.

In 1 Peter 1:6. It says, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”

As Jesus Is Revealed In You,

You Can Rejoice No Matter What.

The Display Of His Glory Often Comes Through Your Wounds!

Your dark nights and cries of longing are lovingly heard, and as His bright light dawns, your grief contrasts with His glorious joy.

In brokenness, God works in you something beautiful, deep, and solid to offer others.

You are developing inner strength as you are being blessed, broken, and given as an offering in your trials.

True strength comes from your desperate need of God. You are a joy to Him as you offer yourself as a representative of His sufficiency.

Paul said He wanted to know Christ and be conformed to the fellowship of sharing His sufferings, knowing there’s a resurrection coming. (Philippians 3:10)

Know that your Father created you for this time, for these very circumstances.

He knew exactly what would be happening in your life as you are living it right now. He knows the impact for which He is preparing you, that still awaits you.

Be Filled with his Grace and hope to lean into the purpose that you were create for, in spite of difficult people, through hard circumstances, and through tough challenges.

Your Purpose, My Purpose Is In The Process

We won’t get there overnight.

We won’t mysteriously wake up with it one morning.

But today we are closer than yesterday, and tomorrow we will be closer than we are today.

Be at peace in Him to know these things, and rejoice in Him.

HE IS ALIVE! We Are Not Alone.

Let’s Pray Together!

Dear Lord,

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by how painful earthly brokenness can feel.

Please help us, help me remember that you Jesus are our greatest blessing.

You are with us now with me now, as we face hardship and grief and sadness and await a day when you will make all things new.

Give me strength, give those that are listening strength as we long for this day, and we ask this in the name of the Resurrected King of Heaven, Jesus Christ, The Messiah.

Amen.

I Know That Many Of You Are Going Through Many Things In Your Own Lives and there is so much going on around us everywhere right now as The LORD is more than shaking His Church.

He is exposing so many uncomfortable things, but what He is really doing is bringing His People back to a place to where He alone is enough, His Word alone is light and life, strength and guidance, no matter how difficult or dark the times can be.

His Word will penetrate past all of that panic and bring us daily comfort.

I’d like to call it Daily Bread since we’re on the subject of talking about Bread, and remember because Christ was The Bread of Life and he gave it to us, and since we’ve given our lives to him, we are now bread of life to others with whatever we speak out of our mouth in the name of Jesus.

It has to be in accuracy and mimicking the way he lived and walked. If it isn’t, then there’s going to be difficulty there’s going to be pain.

It’s going to cause pain.

It’s going to cause difficulty.

So I Encourage You, If You’re Running And Hiding or if you’re trying to protect yourself from something that you’ve done that you know needs to come out into the light,run to Jesus, then tell the Truth and get the help that you need.

It won’t be easy, but that clawing horrible feeling of waiting for the shoe to drop will end, and the enemy will no longer have a foothold in your mind.

For Those Who Are Suffering Because Of The Behaviors Of Others and you know that there just doesn’t seem to be an answer or an end in sight, and certainly no vindication.

I encourage you to not back away and to stand where God has you, but don’t grow bitter and don’t look for revenge.

This is when we take it back into our own power at our own strength.

I Bless You Today!

I encourage you to get before The LORD and ask him to show you “the way” that he has for you during these times where he is maturing you, maturing his bride, and it is all for the glory of the ONE who laid down that entire greatness so that we would have an access to return to heaven.

 

In His Shadow,
~ Mary Lindow ^©

Duplication and sharing of this writing is welcomed as long as complete message and website information for Mary Lindow is included. Thank You!
” THE MESSENGER ” ~ Mary Lindow
www.marylindow.com
Global Prayer Rooms

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Mary Lindow has a passion for encouraging others – all generations, careers or vocations to live expressing excellence through personal integrity, healthy accountability, and wise management of talents and skills. She’s a sought after keynote, inspirational, humorous speaker and teacher across the USA and internationally in Ministers & Spiritual leaders Conferences, and training seminars for various organizations.

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