broken – Oh Lord Help Us

Anger, angry, forgiveness, righteousness, oceans, grace, freedom, broken, sin, Oh Lord Help Us, Christian, women, mentor, ministry

Angry: Silencing Anger through God’s Redemptive Love

DevotionalsAugust 14, 2019August 14, 2019

Acting on our angry feelings is dangerous and invites a stronghold of sin to take root in our lives. But we can break through with God’s redemptive love.

Be angry and do not sin;
Ephesians 4:26, ESV

I’ve been desperately grasping for a reprieve from anger… grasping for peace amongst the storm of rage. Just when I think I’ve pulled it all together, something happens that creates a massive eruption of spew from my mouth.

Righteously Angry

Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God.
Romans 12:19, NLT

I keep hearing about righteous anger, but I often wonder if I even have the ability to embody it. Is it possible for a human to have purely righteous anger? Are we able to knock over tables in righteousness…

Matthew 21:12-16, lays out the prime example used when we speak about Jesus’ anger. –I’ll have to be honest, there are times when I think it would be nice to tip some tables over in rage.– However, I would like to challenge our minds to think about the depth of His anger; think about how His anger differs from ours.

Jesus was perfect and blameless. Sinless. He had the ability to show care and bring restoration even in this heated moment. It grieved His heart to see the perversion that had become the Temple of the Lord, for the sake of His faithful.

But those who saw Jesus act and heard His words of conviction, praised Him. Children sang ‘Hosanna’! He overturned perversion and restored the innocent. This is not often the result of human anger.

Human Anger

I can’t account a time when acting on my anger brought about healing. In fact, I tend to lace my fury with the lie that it’s part of my healing process–Well, not if someone else has to heal because of it.

My heart aches. I can’t explain the pain and brokenness my false righteous indignation has caused. I can’t tell you how many messes I’ve had to clean up because I acted out my firey insides. Or how many times I’ve had to ask for forgiveness. Especially from my Savior.

We don’t get a pass on sinful anger just because we call it righteous. If you have to say it’s righteous, it probably isn’t. If you have to account for your actions during bouts of anger, you’ve probably been acting selfishly and, ultimately, sinfully.

Always the Ocean

A lot of life reminds me of the ocean. A lot of my relationship with God reminds me of the ocean. Always with the ocean. This time, thinking of anger… it’s captivating and extremely dangerous.

I know the curative therapy that is the sea; breathing in the salty air, diving into the warm water, letting the waves bring you back to shore. Its majesty lets you know you cannot tame it.

Oh, how small we are.

But that’s how enticing anger is. The eruptions like waves; believing in the false therapy following. Breathing in and out, in and out… Yeah, that’s not working. Diving into the heat of the moment. Its waves pulling you further from shore, with no hope of taming the rage.

Oh, how small I’ve become.

Take a Breath

Because I am still in this season, because I’m not on the other side of this lesson, I feel I should share what God is speaking. In trying to derive advice from The Ultimate Authority, a series of questions ran through my mind. I believe these will allow us to take a breath, evaluate our anger, and have to repent of sin less often.

Am I angry at what makes God angry… did this make filthy, what God made pure?

Am I being honest about my anger? Do I need to repent of these actions?

Do I have the ability to be angry and love at the same time? Is my anger meant to restore or tear apart?

Am I allowing the Holy Spirit to control my anger or am I harming those around me?

Freedom from Anger

Yes, these questions may help bring rational thought to a fueled moment, but how do we feel anger and not sin? How do we handle seasons of anger and break free from its bondage? As I said, I’m still in the thick of it, but these are my daily practices and convictions…

Self-control: Proverbs 16:32

Face to the floor prayer.

Take every thought captive: 2 Corinthians 10:5

Fasting.

Give NO opportunity to the devil: Ephesians 4:27

Biblical meditation.

Do good: Romans 12:19-21

Love God and keep His commands: John 14:15

God’s Peace

In these moments of helplessness, moments where rage takes over, I am reminded of how much I need the redemptive power of my Father. How much I need the freedom given through His blood.

Through His blood, we can repent of our unrighteous, sinful anger. We can be made whole, we can heal through His grace, not our rage.

His grace silences our haughty words. Silences our temper. It covers us and gives us the ability to approach His throne with the things that have broken our hearts. It allows God to speak:

That ocean you love so dearly, its majesty, its nature, its constant rhythm is my love for you. I am the ocean, unwavering, unstoppable, overwhelming, raging. The battle between the ocean and the shore, that’s my battle for you. For your freedom. That peace you feel, that’s my gift to you. No longer will you be a slave to this crashing bitterness. You are delivered. You are redeemed.

Through His blood, we can repent of our unrighteous, sinful anger. We can be made whole, we can heal through His grace, not our rage. Click To Tweet

Ruslan Valeev

Broken, brokenness, heart, love, restored, trust, Oh Lord Help Us, Christian, women, mentor, ministry

Shattered: Picking Up The Pieces Of A Broken Heart

DevotionalsJuly 1, 2019July 1, 2019

We will all, unfortunately, experience a shattered heart. People will hurt and disappoint us, but Jesus will always treat us will care. We must learn to trust in His faithful love.

The Lord is near the brokenhearted; he saves those crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:18

Odds are, we all, at one point or another, have fallen in love. For me, my first love was when I was 16 years old. I was a sophomore in high school. I entered into a new school with new friends and was lucky enough to be picked to be on the JV Cheerleading squad. Everything was going for me. My past had been full of ups and downs, but now, as a sophomore, things were taking a turn for the better. Then I met… him.

Butterflies and Love Letters

Listen! My love is approaching.
Look! Here he comes,
leaping over the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
My love is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
See, he is standing behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattice.
My love calls to me:
Arise my darling. Come away, my beautiful one.
Song of Songs 2:8-10, CSB

He was popular, with good morals, and full of charm. Everyone liked him, and yet, he had his eyes on me. I didn’t understand why, but I enjoyed the attention. This is the stage in every relationship, at least in my generation, where love notes were written all the time. Back and forth we would express our feelings of what felt like love towards each other. I remember thinking, So this is what butterflies feel like when you love someone for the first time. I had never experienced anything like it.

For a 16-year-old, these feelings were all new and very exciting. I felt like I could do anything with him by my side. We attended church together, had nicknames, picked out our very own song, gave each other promise rings, and even managed to stay together when I moved away because of my Dad’s job. When life was hard, we had each other. When life was good, he was always the reason. Then one unexpected day, my whole world shattered. I found a note…

Shattered and Left Lonely

He attended a private school and was there while I was on break. I found myself over at his house often trying to help in any way I could, since his mom was single and working with much on her plate. While cleaning his room, I found a note on the floor with his handwriting. I picked up the letter thinking he had written it and just not given it to me yet.

After the first few lines, I knew that was not the case. I continued reading and noticed that he was talking to his friend in class about a girl he found attractive at his school. He expressed his interest in her and how he wasn’t sure what to do since he was still dating me. My heart pounded within my chest and the knot in my throat grew enormously in size.

Any girl that’s experienced a shattered heart, unfortunately, knows this feeling all too well. It’s a gut-wrenching, empty feeling in the pit of your stomach that just won’t go away. In that moment, my emotions were all over the place. Fear of the unknown, deep sadness, feeling I had just been replaced. And anger for putting so much trust in someone so young. I was left standing in his room all alone, brokenhearted, as I waited for him to come home from school. The clock ticked and tocked as I sat there counting the minutes of the inevitable breakup I never saw coming just two hours prior.

A joyful heart makes a face cheerful, but a sad heart produces a broken spirit.
Proverbs 15:13, CSB

Blessed and Learning Love

Obviously, the conversation that took place upon his arrival home didn’t go so well. He admitted he had feelings for someone else and that was basically the end of our relationship. It took WAY longer than I’d care to admit to get over that heartbreak. But in time, I finally learned how to move on.

Some of the hardest battles we fight are for love. We will fight hard for someone when we see that they have all the qualities we are looking for. We never forget our High School first loves and will remember those relationships for the rest of our lives. They draw out of us our deep longing for intimacy and connection for another. What I know now, and didn’t realize then, is that this desire for intimacy was meant for my Savior, Jesus Christ and no one else.

I am not saying that we can’t fall in love with people, because clearly we can and I have. However, the deep intimacy I gave my first love is meant for Christ alone. Falling in love with Jesus and making Him our first love has its advantages. This allows us to not place expectations on any other human we fall in love with, because they can not give us what Jesus can; which is an uncompromising, incomparable, everlasting, unconditional, eternal love.

Jesus never breaks my heart. Jesus never hurts my feelings. Jesus never replaces me for someone more desirable. Jesus ALWAYS chooses me. Knowing this truth has helped me learn how to love others and forgive them when they happen to break my heart.

May the Lord direct your hearts to God’s love and Christ’s endurance.
2 Thessalonians 3:5, CSB

Prayer For The Broken Hearted

Father, I need your love daily. Remind me that even when people break my heart and leave it shattered in pieces on the floor, you are there to faithfully pick them up and put them back together again. When I think my world is falling apart, give me eyes to see it’s falling into place. Lead my heart to follow you so I don’t fall into the trap of following it. My heart is evil Lord, this I know. Restore it and teach it to love like you. Mend it and use it for your glory and your goodness, God. In my Beloved Savior’s name, I pray. Amen

Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my instruction: do not fear disgrace by men, and do not be shattered by their taunts.
Isaiah 51:7, CSB

Falling in love with Jesus keeps us from placing expectations on other humans we fall in love with. They can not give us what Jesus can… An uncompromising, incomparable, everlasting, unconditional, eternal love. Click To Tweet

Annie Spratt

brokenness, broken, beautiful, beauty, redemption, Oh Lord Help Us, Christian, women, mentor, ministry

Beauty: Allowing the Lord to Restore Our Brokenness

DevotionalsMay 6, 2019May 6, 2019

When we allow the Lord to restore the brokenness in our hearts, He makes us into something beautiful. Indeed, He makes all things beautiful in His time. Beauty for ashes.

A few weeks ago I attended a friend’s beautiful birthday celebration. But this was no ordinary birthday party! It was a Girl’s Day (and night) of epic proportion. I’m talking lunch, coffee, pedicures, shopping, cocktails, and a gourmet dinner. It was truly a fairy tale kind of afternoon.

But like any beautiful fairy tale, brokenness emerged as part of the story. At one point, we were all sitting around a table on a warm, breezy veranda. That’s when the birthday girl suggested we play a get-to-know-you trivia game.

Bits of Brokenness…

As my friend read off the unique facts about each woman, we were to match the descriptor with each woman’s name. As she read the descriptions, bits of brokenness revealed themselves. One woman survived breast cancer. Another woman served in the military in Afghanistan. Someone else had just given birth three weeks ago. And another’s husband almost died twice last year….the incredible list went on! Given that I was new to the group, I had no idea which description matched which woman.

And as I looked around the table at all their beautiful faces, pretty clothes, and newly painted nails, I was still at a loss. Honestly, I found it hard to believe that this group–of such outwardly put together women–could have experienced such deep depths of brokenness. When my friend revealed the answers to the questions, I looked at each woman at the table. Each one was a testament to the amazing beauty that emerges when we allow the Lord to restore our brokenness.

He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

Psalm 147:3

A Therapeutic Process…

A simple illustration of how the Lord has turned my brokenness into beauty is through the craft of jewelry making. For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved making jewelry. As a little girl, I would sneak into my mom’s sewing kit, hunting for colorful embroidery floss. It took some doing to unwrap the threads from the pokey pincushions and other sewing supplies. But once I had my assortment of colors, I’d spend hours making elaborate macrame friendship bracelets.

Amid the emotional chaos of my parents’ unraveling relationship, the slow straightening, pulling, and knotting of the long strings became a therapeutic process. I remember feeling so satisfied when I’d finally finished a bracelet.

Slowly yet surely, I would transform the once tangled, stringy mess into a tightly fashioned pattern of beauty. And doesn’t this mirror how the Lord works in our hearts? Under His patient and steady hand, the once seemingly hopeless, jumbled mess of a broken heart is mended into a beautifully woven masterpiece.

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted….

Isaiah 61:1

Castaways…

A few years ago, I found myself in need of some jewelry therapy once again! My husband and I were in the middle of a financial wilderness season–which posed a problem for someone whose love language is gift giving! I simply couldn’t bear the thought of allowing a friend or family member’s birthday to pass without giving her a gift. Because I couldn’t afford to buy anything, I decided to make jewelry to give as presents.

The only problem was, the pretty new beads from the local bead store were pricey. But the Holy Spirit gave me an ingenious idea for how to get my hands on free jewelry supplies. I began asking friends and family to give me any old, broken, or castaway jewelry that they were willing to part with. Then, I’d take apart the old pieces and make them new jewelry from the supplies I received. Upcycling at its finest!

Their Trash, My Treasure…

It was only a matter of time before the floodgates of jewelry supplies opened. Soon, women were bringing me bags of broken or unwanted jewelry, and their trash truly became my treasure! Amid my fear and uncertainty about our family’s financial future, once again, I was able to find comfort in the simple physical process of making jewelry.

After putting my baby and toddler to bed, I’d sit for hours sorting through all the broken pieces, dismantling and organizing the beads, playing around with different color combinations, and exploring new designs. As I delved into that creative process, the Creator was sorting through the broken pieces of my heart–untangling knots from old wounds and refashioning me into His original design.

Broken to Beautiful…

Fast forward a few years, and the Holy Spirit began to show me how this creative process–of taking something broken and making it beautiful–has tremendous potential as a tool for ministry. That’s when the Lord gave me the idea to host guided jewelry making parties as a form of ladies’ fellowship. I presented the idea to my pastor’s wife, and our ladies’ Bible study group decided to host our first Broken to Beautiful event.

The evening was such a blessing! My pastor’s wife shared a powerful message about Christ’s restoration; we enjoyed a time of food and fellowship, and I shared my testimony of how the Lord has taken me on a journey from a place of brokenness to one of beauty.

That night, I shared with those ladies something that I know to be true: We are not beautiful despite being broken; rather, we are beautiful precisely because we have experienced brokenness. And when we allow the Lord to restore our broken parts, He puts us back together perfectly, making us even more beautiful than before. When that evening ended, two new souls were added to the kingdom, as two women handed their broken hearts over to the Lord. He is now making them beautiful.

We are not beautiful despite being broken. We are beautiful because we have experienced brokenness and allowed the Lord to restore our broken parts. Click To Tweet

Precious Jewels…

Before long, our ladies group began to take Broken to Beautiful events to the young women living in a nearby orphanage. The girls sort through the broken, dismantled jewelry, choose their favorite beads, and create beautiful new pieces of jewelry. Through this hands-on activity, they experience a physical picture of the spiritual process that the Lord wants to do in each of our hearts.

He sees their broken hearts. Not as accidents or mistakes to be discarded and thrown away. But as precious jewels, full of splendor and worthy of honor in His kingdom. Each time we finish an event with these young ladies, their countenances change–from dark and sullen to light and hopeful. And their bracelets serve as a powerful outward reminder of the inner beauty and worth that they possess.

Oh Lord Help Us…

Recently, the Director of Oh Lord Help Us, Rachael, invited me to begin holding Broken to Beautiful events in our community. We hosted our first one last week and plan to host many more. We’re inviting women to bring their old, broken, and castaway jewelry to the events, and they will leave with a beautiful new piece that they have created.

Pieces from their broken jewelry will eventually show up in the new designs created by women at future gatherings. Their beads could also be incorporated into beautiful pieces created by the young ladies in our Hope + Vine artisans program.

So, Beloved, our brokenness becomes our beauty. Literally and spiritually. Because we are women who serve a God who gives us beauty for ashes. A God who truly makes all things beautiful in His time.

He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

How has the Lord turned your brokenness into beauty? Would you like to host or attend a Broken to Beautiful event? If so, contact us: events@ohlordhelp.us

Debby Hudson

All scripture references from The King James Version of The Bible

broken, beauty, pain, idols, Oh Lord Help Us, Christian, women, mentor, ministry

Stripping: When God Begins Removing To Bring Brokenness

DevotionalsMarch 10, 2019March 10, 2019

God reveals idols in our hearts that keep us from being able to draw near to Him. This stripping process can be painful, but the outcome is a beautiful result.

Stripping – it isn’t a word we use often in the course of our daily lives. Unless we’re referring to furniture, the word has a rather negative connotation. Consequently, it isn’t something we generally discuss with our friends at the coffee shop. Talk about questioning looks from the nearest tables!

I’m kind of a word-nerd, so the meanings of strip interest me: to deprive of covering; to deprive or divest; clear out or empty; to take away or remove…

To Deprive of Covering

These definitions describe perfectly how it feels when the Spirit of God begins shining His light into my life to reveal what doesn’t belong, what doesn’t reflect His image. This is usually due to a heart problem within me. Truthfully – I asked for it! But I’m never prepared for the pain of the stripping process.

Remember Adam and Eve after they sinned against God? What is the first thing they realized? They were naked…and ashamed. Their instinct was to hide, and we’re still hiding today. I don’t know what you hide behind, but when I’m feeling exposed, I have a few favorite fig leaves to hide behind.

When my kids were home, I could hide behind being “the-best-mom” and “a-better-mom-than-my-mom.” Ladies, I had the cleanest house, baked the best bread, cooked dinner every night, and homeschooled before it was cool. Then those kids began growing up. Oops, my mom-covering was slipping off my shoulders!

To Deprive or Divest

While my husband Gary and I had taught Bible study classes or Sunday school since we were in our twenties, we began leading a community group when our children were older. Each summer, I taught in or directed a grade in Vacation Bible School. I led Baptist Young Women, a mission organization. In addition, my husband and I sang in the choir and later, on a worship team.

When our youngest was a senior in high school, I felt a calling on my life to return to school to complete a degree in counseling. Did I slow down at church? Of course not! I began a support group for families in crisis! However, after a few years, deep, spiritual problems were discovered at the leadership level in our home church. Ultimately brokenhearted, our family moved to another church…and later, another denomination.

All that meaningful busyness was over for a season. Another fig leaf was batted away from me.

To Empty

Being ever the resourceful woman, I soon filled the hours with graduate school and chaplaincy work. During this time our family experienced each of our children’s marriages and one of them going through a painful divorce. Also, my father and my husband had been struck by cancer; my father had ultimately died from the disease.

I didn’t have enough sense to stop and rest, so my body finally stopped me, almost literally in my tracks. One day, while walking the 2 blocks to my car from my job at the hospital, I seriously wondered if my legs were going to get me to the parking lot. It seems I finally reached empty…for a while, that is.

Shattered

What do you trust in more than the Lord? God will break your dependence upon anything other than Himself no matter how long it takes or how difficult the process may be. He is committed to bringing you to a place of wholeness and spiritual maturity—conforming you to the likeness of His Son (Romans 8:29)
-Charles Stanley

Those of you who have been reading my posts for a year or so know that this incident was the beginning of the Fibromyalgia and chronic migraine story I live daily. Please don’t read this post as a narrative blaming God for the bad things that happen. However, as a loving Father leads a child away from danger, and as Scripture repeatedly bears out, He will break our dependence on anything other than Himself, (which results in idolatry). That process will always be painful.

Thankfully, our Father doesn’t leave us like a shattered vessel dropped at His feet.

The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit, [or a crushed spirit].
Psalm 34:18, NKJV; See also Psalm 147:3

To Take Away or Remove

“When I was in my early 30’s, I seriously thought I would have this spiritual stuff all figured out by now,” I told Gary last week. We both laughed heartily. There is NO FIGURING IT OUT, dear sister; there is no secret formula. No matter our age or maturity level, we are each traveling on a journey headed toward our Home with Jesus.

The context of my earlier statement was spurred by a Brennen Manning reading:

Trust is purified in the crucible of trial. From the depths of a purified heart, trust clings to the belief that whatever happens in our lives is designed to form Christ within us. Unwavering confidence in the love of God inspires trust to thank God for the spiritual darkness that envelops us, for the loss of income, for the arthritis that is so painful…

Many things have been removed from my life which I thought were essential-most of them good things, Godly endeavors, my health. But years ago, when I asked God to make me holy, to form me into His image, He took me seriously and began slowly stripping away areas where I placed my treasure rather than in Him.

God Alone

Jesus said the entire Law rested on loving God with our whole, undivided hearts, and loving our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40).

Therefore, the stripping is necessary, because our hearts so easily run after other lovers, (see Hosea; Psalm 78:10-11; 2 Kings 5-17). In fact, we’re witnessing it occur throughout the Church at large, as one leader after another loses his fig leaves. We may hide our idols from other people for a season, but they are never hidden from our Father. His breaking is required to unclasp our grip from the idols which have taken supremacy in our hearts. The stripping takes place to bring about our brokenness, to reveal our deep need of Him alone, not God + _____.

Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom…
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart – these, O God, You will not despise.
Psalm 51:6 & 17, NKJV

I sincerely desire to know His wisdom, but it requires giving up my fig leaves…daily.

We may hide our idols from other people, but they are never hidden from our Father. His breaking is required to unclasp our grip from the idols which have taken supremacy in our hearts. Click To Tweet

Ankul Singh

transformation, mess, Oh Lord Help Us, women, mentoring, Christian, ministry

Transformation: Allowing God’s Guidance to Use Us Where We Are

Devotionals, Stay SaneSeptember 13, 2018January 13, 2019

The transformation of Paul is a great reminder that God can use us, no matter what. When feelings of “I am not good enough for God to use me” sneak in, remember it is NOT true!

Power, righteousness, absolution, and control. Those were the coveted virtues of Saul of Tarsus. He wielded his certainty of righteousness like a sword, which would cut through the flesh of early Christians. This includes poor Stephen, who is considered the first martyr for God.

Saul extolled his power over the ringleaders of Christ’s church as he imprisoned not just men but women too. Saul tore families apart. He was assured of absolution from all this murder and mayhem because the Hebrew leaders told him he was holy in deeds.

One Story Ends

Then an amazing miracle occurred: transformation.

As he was going along, approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

Acts 9:3

God stepped in and changed Saul to Paul. Paul who became one of the most influential leaders of the early church, who is responsible for writing between eight and thirteen books of the New Testament. He received grace, mercy, love, and direction. In the end, these were the virtues that led him to eternal life.

Do you feel like me? Too broken, too tired, too useless or too far gone for God to use?

I am so out of sorts right now. Some days I don’t even want to crawl out from under the covers. Laying in bed, eating popcorn, watching Hallmark movies, and daydreaming I am anywhere other than where I am. Being overscheduled, having children, being a wife and teacher can drive me to think I should just give up.

The Transformation Begins

Just last week, in a moment like this, God spoke Paul’s story of transformation to me and reminded me that all is well. I am broken, messy, tired, and self-involved. BUT I am exactly the creation that God can use to spread His word. Hey, I’m talking to you, aren’t I? Amazing!

There is no sin too great, despair too deep, or emptiness too vast in a life that God cannot restore and use for the glory of His Kingdom. My goodness, a scribe of the Word was a murderer, blasphemer, and persecutor of the early church. Saul literally tried to put God’s bride, the Church, to death. And instead, Paul became her champion.

The whole group kept quiet and listened to Barnabas and Paul while they explained all the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.

Acts 15:12

A recent sermon at church was centered around Paul and his good works and motivation to move the early church forward. I admit, I totally checked out as I felt compelled to read the “before” story. How did Paul get to be such a paragon of the church? That’s when God told me… “I will always be able to use you. You are broken, messy, and sinful. But, if I can use Saul, oh how I can use you.” Maybe not out loud, but in a soft whisper in my heart.

There is no sin too great, despair too deep, or emptiness too vast in a life that God cannot restore and use for the glory of His Kingdom. Click To Tweet

Keep Moving Toward God

So, if that is possible, I must submit to the awesome plans of my God and allow Him to be my guide. I can’t give up, though I can rest. I shouldn’t spend so much time regretting where I’m not, but reveling in where I am.

God has made everything fit beautifully in its appropriate time, but he has also placed ignorance in the human heart so that people cannot discover what God has ordained, from the beginning to the end of their lives.

Ecclsiastes 3:11

So how do I do that? How can I find the courage to confess my sins of self-indulgence, coveting, and a myriad of other issues I see reflecting back at me on my worst days? How can I feel so worthless and still be an instrument for God?

He Has All the Answers

Starting where I always do with prayer, reflection, and acknowledgment, my transformation can begin…

I will cry out to God and call for help! I will cry out to God and he will pay attention to me.

Psalms 77:1

August 27

Dear God,

Please be with me today. I feel super cranky, and don’t even want to get out of bed. I want to lose my patience, yell and cry out that life isn’t fair. Really do I even have to “do” today? I can’t keep up with all of this and the kids, co-workers, family, ALL of IT is more than I can do. I feel like I am failing and falling. Please take it away.

Pity party, that is what I am having. I am focusing on the tasks and not the outcome. You’re right. If my mantra is to be a reflection of Your light in my everyday walk, I need to suck it up.

Forgive me for wishing my circumstances away. Help me use Your gift of today to do better, be better and give better.

Love,

All scripture references come from the NET Bible.

redeemed, broken, christian, women, encouragement

Masterpiece: Five Possible Responses to Brokenness

Devotionals, Stay SaneMarch 18, 2018July 30, 2019

There are different ways to respond to the brokenness we have experienced. One way brings glory to the Creator. God wants to use the brokenness to create a masterpiece.

Last fall, I was at a holiday vendor event and had a divine connection. There I met a lady who I knew I would be connecting with again! Kim is a wife, mother, and physical therapist. Her passion is to share God’s love with others by sharing her life experiences. Today she is sharing a valuable lesson she has only been able to learn from walking through difficult seasons. Here Kim writes…

“It was someone else’s fault.” “Don’t worry about it, no one can be perfect.” “You can pick yourself back up and do what you need to pick yourself back up.” “I can’t believe you let yourself do that.” These are all responses that we may hear from our families and friends and when we make mistakes and become broken.

Response

As Christians, what is our initial response to our own brokenness – shame, guilt, anger, coverup? I have found that responses to brokenness fall into these scenarios…

1. Do what we can to cover our brokenness so hopefully, no one finds out or notices it.

2. Isolate ourselves, pull away from others, and sink into self-pity because of feelings of shame and guilt.

3. Hide our brokenness, secretly deal with our brokenness; to the outside we have it all together but on the inside we are broken.

4. Let our brokenness be known and seen but we either don’t want to change or we don’t know how to change so we remain broken and our brokenness just becomes part of us.

5. We allow ourselves to be made into a new creation using our broken pieces to make the new masterpiece through vulnerability, repentance, love and accountability of others, and reconciliation to Christ.

The Correct Response

As I have worked through my extreme brokenness over the past several years, I am convinced that God desires the latter response even though that is probably the most difficult and most vulnerable response. It is also a response that I believe God calls us to encourage with others as His disciples. Our response to our brokenness, and to the brokenness of those in our midst, reflects our true beliefs of who God is and the characteristics of God.

Our response to our brokenness, and to the brokenness of those in our midst, reflects our true beliefs of who God is and the characteristics of God. Click To Tweet

I have walked down the path of all of these responses in relation to my brokenness. Prior to being a Christian, I would tend to accept my brokenness, not try to change it. I didn’t worry who saw my brokenness. I would say the other 4 responses are all responses that followers of Christ may give. As a Christian we have admitted that we are broken and need Christ’s forgiveness; but I know I stopped at this knowledge and initial confession. From that point of initial salvation, we have a choice of what we do with our continued brokenness. Within so many Christian communities, we feel we need to hide and coverup our brokenness because we are to be all put together since we have Christ! That is how I lived my life for years.

My view of brokenness also affected my friendships and marriage. I formed some close relationships, but not vulnerable or transparent relationships. That reflected my relationship with God. I wanted to know a lot about God, but I was scared to become vulnerable and transparent with Him. I didn’t accept His unconditional love. As I continued with this superficial, knowledge-based relationship with Christ, I did not surrender to my brokenness to allow for healing and strength to overcome temptation in that same area of brokenness. As a result, I fell into temptation again resulting in extreme brokenness.

Redeemed, Not Perfect

Over the past couple of years as I walked through extreme brokenness God has taught me several things about brokenness. The first lesson was to really believe that just because we are saved doesn’t mean we are perfect, un-tempted, or sinless. In fact, once we begin to really follow Christ as Lord and Savior, Satan will wage war within us. How much we believe that affects our response with our continued brokenness.

After my salvation, Satan attacked my view of myself which produced shame and guilt and a desire to just cover up that part of my life. I wanted God to take that from me. I didn’t want to deal with all of my brokenness that was a result of my view. So for years, I kept that part of me secret and didn’t do my part to surrender that part of me to God.

For the first time, I surrendered my whole self to Christ, broken pieces and all. I became transparent about my brokenness to those around me. I believed Christ’s promise to make me into a new creation as I walked through my brokenness beside Him. That walk included pain, consequences, hard conversations, and life change. But I didn’t do it alone nor in my own power. Through Christ’s redemption and Power, I love who I was created to be, am thankful for my brokenness, and am in intimate relationships with others and God for the first time.

His Glory

God wants to use your brokenness to create His masterpiece in you. He wants your vulnerability, your transparency, and your brokenness so He can display His love, His power, His redemption, and His glory; creatively using your broken pieces to reflect Him in you. You are His masterpiece, brokenness and all!

Thank you, Kim!!

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Annie Spratt

Broken, but God…has redeemed me.

Fear: Brokenness Ultimately Leads to Living Fearlessly

Devotionals, Stay SaneFebruary 8, 2018June 27, 2019

Fear and rejection can leave us feeling paralyzed. But it is our brokenness that will ultimately lead to becoming fearless.

My earliest memory of fear occurred when I was a child of six. On a warm summer evening, my family went to the home of some good friends of my parents for dinner. All my brother and I cared about was that they had kids close to our age – two boys. (It seems none of my parent’s friends had girls, but that’s another story!) While the adults chatted after the meal, we children happily played outside on the swing-set laughing, yelling, and probably arguing. 😉 Suddenly, I felt something stinging my face; the pain was immediate and intense. Jumping off the swing, I ran screaming to my mother, who soothed me and quickly assessed I had at least two bee stings on my face. Her friend made a paste of baking soda and water to apply to the stings while I rested on mom’s lap.

Within several moments I was ready to return playing with our friends, but no words came out when I opened my mouth to speak. I tried once again, but to no avail. Panicked, I got mom’s attention and she realized my body was swelling. Things were moving quickly from there. Fear spread throughout the group as they were preparing to take me to the hospital. Fortunately for me, mom had recently read an article regarding deadly allergic reactions some people had to bees and that a new desensitization process was being offered by the medical community. That article saved my life.

Needless to say, despite several years of shots to alleviate my reaction to bees, I spent decades being deeply afraid of them. I’m blessed to say I’ve raised perennial flower beds for 15 years now.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm 27:1, NKJV

Fear: Rejection

In high school, I wanted to be popular…translated – liked/loved. As a result, I became a cheerleader, joined clubs, became editor of the newspaper, etc. Guess what? There were still people who didn’t like me. Shocker, I know. For reasons unknown, I can recall one particularly vicious phone call I received from a popular girl about something I didn’t do, but she thought I did. Even though I professed Jesus, I was looking for acceptance at the wrong addresses.

Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, You people in whose heart is My law: Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; But My righteousness will be forever, And My salvation from generation to generation.

Isaiah 51:7-8, NKJV

Fear: Paralyzed

When I was a young mother with a baby, my husband worked a swing shift. I didn’t like staying alone on the nights he had to work, but I spent most evenings at my parents’ until it was time to take my son home and put him to bed. But then one night while we all were out, our home was burglarized. My husband and I felt violated.

After that, fear blossomed like a sunflower in my chest. I heard every noise, real or imagined, in the house or the basement. Its embarrassing to remember the times I would call our neighbor over to check the house because I thought I had heard something. (He and his wife were very gracious!) This fear lasted so long it was making me physically ill – I was trying to stay awake all night, begging God to keep us safe. I was thinking of escape plans for my son and I should someone break in. It was difficult.

Fear: Delivered

During this time, I was working with first graders in Sunday School. One week we made a prayer wheel out of paper plates. For every need on one side of the wheel, there were Bible verses on the other side that applied to the need. “Coincidentally,” my husband worked nights that week, which I dreaded with a vengeance. In desperation, one night I pulled that children’s prayer wheel out and turned it to fear, looking up each verse. I told God I was so weary of living this way, and I knew that He didn’t want me to anymore. (He does say, “Fear not” 365 times in His Word!) From that night forward, the paralyzing fear left me. Has it attempted to return? Sure, but God has delivered me from the stronghold of fear each time.

I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of the son of a man who will be made like grass? And you forget the Lord your Maker, Who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth; You have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he has prepared to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor?…But I am the Lord your God, Who divided the sea whose waves roared – the Lord of hosts is His name. And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand…

Isaiah 51:12-16a, NKJV

Fear: Be Fearless

I believe we all battle with fear in one form or another. Otherwise, why did God mention it so often? Sometimes I wonder if our fear isn’t used by God to help bring about needed brokenness…because only out of brokenness comes fearlessness. And isn’t that what we really want – to be fearless? Even Paul asked the Ephesians to pray for this in him in Ephesians 6:16-20.

Louie Giglio said in a sermon at 2012 Passion, “Minimize your fears by maximizing your one fear and realizing this: I’m already chained to Jesus Christ. The only thing I’m afraid of is living an insignificant life.”

Amen.

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Even though I professed Jesus, I was looking for acceptance at the wrong addresses. Click To Tweet

Luke Matthews

I was afraid, but God… loved me.

This is one of the truths you will learn in the study, but God…Where the Story Changes.

broken, brokenness, beauty, faithfulness, redeemed, redemption

Making Mosaics

Devotionals, Stay SaneOctober 1, 2017January 19, 2020

God, the Master Artist, looks at the shards of our brokenness and sees beauty that we can’t. God uses the brokenness and creates a new, beautiful mosaic.

I don’t know anyone in this world who has escaped brokenness. I know I haven’t. In fact, brokenness touched my life in profound ways early on in my life. I spent most of my adult life thus far trying to hide how broken I was, but once I began to acknowledge all the scattered pieces of me laying all around, I found myself desperate to find a way to put the pieces of me back together.

I found myself on a journey towards healing from childhood sexual abuse. But every time I thought I had finally fit two pieces of me back together, I would see a new pile of all that was shattered in a corner I didn’t see before. I pleaded with God to put me back together. After all, He promises “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3, ESV). Surely healing meant He would put me back together.

As I have walked this journey, I have come to understand healing isn’t what I envisioned it would be. I thought of healing as God putting the broken pieces of me back together like a puzzle. While I can’t possibly put all the countless pieces of me back into the places they were before, I was certain God could. Yet, He hasn’t. His healing isn’t about putting me back together. It’s about making the old new.

His healing isn’t about putting me back together. It’s about making the old new. Click To Tweet

The problem with putting the pieces back together is that once the pieces were fitted where they were to begin with, they provide an appearance of wholeness yet are still fractured. A puzzle put together still breaks in the same places. It appears whole, you see the entire picture the pieces come together to create, yet it’s perpetually broken, fractured forever. God’s healing won’t put the pieces back together to give me an appearance of wholeness while leaving me still broken. So what is He doing instead?

God isn’t putting me together like a puzzle. When He looks at the chaotic mess of my scattered shards, He sees a new work of art as only an Artist can. He not only sees this new work of art, He begins creating it. He picks up each broken piece of me, lovingly cleans it and polishes it, and He places it in its new place in the mosaic He is making out of me.

When He looks at the chaotic mess of my scattered shards, He sees a new work of art... Click To Tweet

A mosaic, you see, is made by taking broken pieces and arranging them into a work of art held in place by some kind of glue or cement. That glue holds all those broken pieces together as one work of art. It is whole yet comprised of what was once broken. But the eyes of the artist saw beauty in the midst of the broken, and created something new out of what once was old. Unlike a puzzle, a mosaic, though made of broken pieces, is completely whole. It is held together, cemented in place, so it can’t be taken apart.

God, the Master Artist, looks at the shards of my brokenness and sees beauty that I can’t. The abuse that broke me cannot be undone (trust me, I’ve tried), but God uses the brokenness and creates a new mosaic. He doesn’t place all those shattered pieces back where they once were to create the appearance of wholeness. No, He does more than that. He honors the story of each broken piece, polishing it off, and places it in the glue of His grace and mercy and love. That glue can never be broken again. Out of old, broken pieces, He is fashioning a beautiful, new mosaic.

Of course, the brokenness can be seen and each shard still has a story to tell, but the glue of His faithfulness holding all the pieces together creates a whole piece of art that tells of His goodness through the brokenness. It tells of a love that refuses to leave me shattered. Healing is not putting the pieces of me back together. It’s much greater than that. Healing is making a new work of art…wholeness made out of brokenness.

...the glue of His faithfulness holding all the pieces together creates a whole piece of art... Click To Tweet

As I said at first, I don’t know of anyone in this life who has escaped brokenness, and I don’t know what it is that broke you and left you in pieces. So my dear and precious sisters, broken and scattered, take heart. He is not putting the old you back together. He is not merely fitting pieces of an old puzzle back where they once were so all can see where you broke.

He loves you too much to leave you with the appearance of wholeness yet perpetually broken. He is taking all the broken pieces of who you used to be and artfully creating a new masterpiece, telling a story of how you are being put back together…a story of how where you have walked will shape who you become. You, my dear sister, are not a puzzle to be fit back together into the old. You are a mosaic being masterfully made new.