Brokenness
… the kind of
brokenness that you experience when your world lays crumbled at your feet …
when the pain is
so profound it’s hard to breathe …
when you’re just
numb …
when questions run
through your mind … why me or why didn’t I see this coming? …
When you find
yourself wondering and even asking … God, why did you allow this to happen?
The first two
why’s, in reality, don’t have concrete answers, but the third one, ‘why did God
allow this to happen,’ in my mind, has a clear and easy answer. It’s not
because God is uncaring or distant, it’s because God gave mankind freewill to
choose Him and His goodness and in so doing, He gave us freewill to choose to
do evil as well. It’s that simple,
mankind as a whole and individually, gets to choose and when evil is chosen,
people are hurt … sometimes devastatingly so.
One of many
beautiful things about God though, is that when mankind does choose evil over
good, He is still willing and ready to help us overcome.
Let’s look at what
He tells us in His word about brokenness beginning in Psalm 34:18. Can
we just let this beautiful passage soak in …
Psalm 34:18 …
The Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit. (ESV)
This verse in
context, is referring to those who are broken and crushed by the realization of
sin in their lives; it’s written to those who are ready to obey God’s teachings,
allowing Him to rescue and save them.
However, I don’t think it takes anything away from or adds to the image
of God we see in this verse to apply it in the way we are using it. God’s compassion shines through. He is near, He cares and He rescues. Does knowing this take the pain away from devastating
brokenness, no, but it is comforting to know that God is aware and there and that
makes the brokenness more bearable.
Let’s look at some
more scriptures …
Psalm 147:3 … He heals the brokenhearted and binds
up their wounds. (NASB)
What a tender and
caring image of our Father this brings to mind.
He is willing to take His broken children and bind up their wounds. How comforting is that!
Psalm 121: 1 –
3 … I will lift up my
eyes to the hills—from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who
made heaven and earth. He will not allow
your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. (NKJV)
What’s our role in
healing from devastating brokenness? We
must look to God; we must acknowledge and know that He can and will help us
through the brokenness. We rest in the
assurance that He watches over us 24/7 every day and night, and that He will
not get tired of dealing with us/our pain and abandon us after a few days.
Do we always know
what that care will look like, I can tell you that we will absolutely not
always know, in fact, we very seldom know beforehand. His care comes in small and big acts from
others. It comes from those who choose
to walk this journey by our side, shoring us up when we feel like we can’t go
on and it comes from faithful prayer warriors on our behalf. (Sidenote:
this is one of many reasons we need to focus on being the hands and feet
of Jesus while on this earth, God may be using us to help others through,
sometimes silent, unbearable pain.)
Proverbs 3:5-6 … Trust in the Lord with all your
heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge
Him, and He shall direct your paths. (NKJV)
This is the hard
part, trusting … not leaning on our own understanding. The head may be willing, but the heart may
have deep devastating wounds that are yet to heal. We need to trust anyway with whatever amount
of trust we can produce. God knows and
He understands.
It helps to
acknowledge God’s goodness as we travel this journey, in fact we are told to. In our brokenness, sharing what God has done and
or is doing for us might help someone else who hears our testimony. It also serves as a reminder to us that God
is working in the situation.
Isaiah 41:10 … Do not fear, for I am with you; Do
not be afraid, for I am your God. I will
strengthen you, I will also help you, I will also uphold you with My righteous
right hand.’ (NASB)
This is another
hard part … not fearing … remembering that God is with us. We need to take scriptures such as we are looking
at today and commit them to memory, ‘write them on the door posts of our homes’
and hearts, always having them ready and before us to remind us that God is
there, that He has not left us nor will He.
James 1:5 … But if any of you lacks wisdom, let
him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will
be given to him. (NASB)
When we are so
broken that we don’t know what to do, God wants us to ask Him for wisdom. He wants us to ask Him for guidance and
discernment to make the right and best decisions for the current scenario. He assures us when we do, that He will
liberally and without reproach give it to us.
Isaiah 58:11 … And
the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched
places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden,
and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. (NASB)
Make no mistake,
this is a long and most difficult journey to travel, it is also a faith
building journey and as we can see God is more than willing to travel it with
us, if we’ll let Him. Do you see what
else this verse tells us; it tells us we can survive and even thrive again …
you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose
waters do not fail.
I have marked
these scriptures in my Bible, and I would urge you to do the same. If you have never experienced devastating
brokenness and don’t feel this is relevant to your life right now, I would say,
mark them in your Bible anyway.
Someday, somewhere God may place someone in your life that needs these promises to hold on to and in my humble opinion that’s reason enough to be ready to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
Here’s how I label
and mark these scriptures in my Bible that makes them readily accessible for
use when needed …
On a blank page in
the front of my Bible, I write:
Brokenness: Psalm 34:18 (B) (The “B” is an identifier. Each topic will have a different identifying
letter.)
I then turn to Psalm
34:18 and at the end of the verse write the next verse: Psalm 147:3 (B)
Before I leave
Psalm 34:18 though I highlight, or you may prefer to underline the words “The
Lord is near” "saves" and “broken hearted” and “crushed in spirit.”
I use the same
format for the rest of the verses chaining them all together.
In addition, for Psalm
147:3, I highlight or underline the words, “He heals” and “brokenhearted”
and “binds up their wounds.” I want the
things God does to jump off the page at me as soon as I see it! In the margin next to the verse, I write “heals
and binds up.”
For Psalm 121:
1-3, I highlight or underline “my help comes from the Lord” and “He who
keeps you will not slumber.” I want to
be reminded as soon as my eyes are drawn to the words that God is not slack in
His looking out for me.
Proverbs 3:5-6, I highlight or underline “Trust in the
Lord” and “acknowledge His path” and “He will make straight your paths.” Another assurance that God can make something
from the chaos and pain.
Isaiah 41:10, I highlight or underline the entire
verse. In the margin next to the verse,
I write “God’s Assurance.”
James 1:5, I highlight or underline “ask of God” and
“gives to all generously and without reproach” and “it will be given to him.” In the margin next to the verse, I write ‘there
are no silly or insignificant questions or requests to/for God.”
Isaiah 58:11, I highlight or underline “the Lord will
continually guide you.” In the margin
next to the verse, I write “God stays on the job 24/7!” I also write in the margin next to the verse ‘hope.’ That’s what God is giving us, hope that we
will survive and that life will be good again someday.
I hope this topic
helps you or equips you to help someone else.
May God be
glorified in all that we do!*
(Note: the versions of the Bible used in this
article are word for word translations.
Paraphrased editions of God’s word are man’s version, not God’s. There is a difference so please choose the
version of the Bible you use carefully.)
Until the next time!
patsy @ From This Heart of Mine
~ a place for women to gather and study God's Word ~
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