Do You Ever Feel Broken?
Good Morning Friends,
The world is full of broken things. There are broken bones, broken windows, broken hearts, broken promises and broken homes. And all that sand on the beach…broken shells. And when my car and computer do not run…they are broken and need a fix. Well yesterday was an Election Day primary when we collectively gather to help fix those things that are broken in society and some people feel they have won and are celebrating and some lost and feel shattered by the experience….beaten. And congratulations to those who won. But there may be a consolation prize for those who did not. Perhaps we need to look at this in a new way. For our God takes broken people and difficult situations, and turns them around for His glory. Do You Ever Feel Broken?
Scripture: So Gideon and the hundred who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. So the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars, holding in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow; and they cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” Every man stood in his place all around the camp, and all the men in camp ran; they cried out and fled.
Judges 7:19-21 (NRSV)
and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
1 Corinthians 11:24 (NRSV)
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Psalms 51:17 (NRSV)
he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
Matthew 15:36 (NRSV)
And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay.
Mark 2:4 (NRSV)
While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head.
Mark 14:3 (NRSV)
For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.
2 Corinthians 4:6-7 (NRSV)
He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.
Psalms 147:3
Message: In the Bible there are verses about Gideon shining a light out of broken jars and a woman pouring ointment out of a broken jar onto Jesus’ head and people breaking through a roof so their friend could meet Jesus, and bread being broken so the hungry can be fed, and Christ’s body being broken so the world might be saved, and our will being broken so we might have a life of fulfillment in the Spirit. So friends, this morning rejoice in knowing that God uses people with broken hearts as well as joyous ones. And more specifically, God uses people who let their hearts be broken by the things that break God’s heart. So know that our hearts are to break for those in need. Our hearts are to break for people who are unrepentant and self-destructive and refuse help and do not realize that time is running out to practice love. So know we are to realize that God has placed in the clay jars of our lives, the Spirit’s light to shine. And maybe when our jars are broken, when we have been beaten, we have a chance of winning a more important victory of being transformed by love. We need to let this clay jar, this outer shell, this fleshly nature, our will to be broken so that our lives will be filled to overflowing with the sweet perfume of the Holy Spirit. There are wonderful gifts that lay inside of each of us that God has put within each of us. These gifts are nothing that we have earned … they are gifts that lies within us and need to flow out of us and shine out of us. And when they do, there is the sweet smell of an anointing power of the Holy Spirit that transforms us…there is a light that is the light of the world that will shine forth. Friends, God uses broken lives for the most important work in the world. If you feel broken, maybe God is opening you up for something amazing. The only vote that really counts is God’s.
Pray in memory of Jesus’s body broken. Pray we keep the sacred feast. Pray our humble and contrite hearts are welcomed into the presence of the Lord. Pray we anticipate by faith a heavenly feast. Pray we experience His consistent and unconditional love in our brokenness so we might be brought into unity. Pray in the symbols and reality of those things broken for us so we might live. Pray our hearts are broken for others. Pray our lives are broken and God’s light and love flow out of us as gifts to a world in pain.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 