Have you ever been broken? We live in a broken world. We often come from broken families. We often see a broken justice system. Everywhere you look you see something broken. A broken body, a broken smile, a broken soul…
Brokenness has the capacity to taint our outlook. Just like when glass shatters if is hard to see through it, yet it is often with broken glass that you can see a rainbow.
I feel like I should name this year “The Broken Year”
There has been a lot of breaking in this year. Broken relationships, broken path, broken career, you name it and it’s pretty much been broken. My heart has been left in pieces trying to make sense of it all. At first, I was weary to even pick up the pieces for fear I would be cut…
“God, what a mess. I don’t know how to fix this.”
I want to share with you what I’ve been learning in hopes that it will encourage you…
I received an email from a godly man who I was able to receive some counsel from. He said this:
This Scripture is for you, Christine, from the gentle and humble King who loves you dearly:
Matthew 11:28-30 The Message (MSG)
28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Matthew 11:28-30New International Version (NIV)
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30 New Living Translation (NLT)
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.
My friends, I didn’t even know that I needed that word; but let me tell you, I did! This man said, “You had a yoke on you that you were never meant to carry”
Those words hit me like a wave of sheer relief. How many of us have been carrying yokes we never meant to carry? You may be carrying the yoke of your family or the yoke of a career or a yoke of you name it. But is that the yoke God asked you to carry? Or is it a yoke that someone else put on you? Maybe it is a yoke you out on yourself. This man prayed for me and asked God to take off the yoke I had been carrying and put His yoke on me.
I went into work that same day and it felt as though a weight had been lifted. The pressure I had felt the whole time working there was no longer rearing its ugly head. I was so incredibly grateful! But the amazing part that I didn’t know I needed those words. I didn’t know I was carrying a yoke that was never intended for me.
I didn’t know that was an area that still needed to be healed.
My friends, God sees our brokenness. He sees our wounds. He sees the damage done and He knows how to heal us!
“For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal” Job 5:18
“Let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.” Hosea 6:1
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3
God knows where we are still broken and where we need healing. He sees our broken heart and knows how to bind us back up.
So as you look at the shattered pieces of your life, family or heart, you can know that God knows what He is doing. He knows what you need to be healed from. He knows you, your situation and the work that needs to be accomplished for you to continue moving forward. You can rest in Him. Rest in His promises. Trust God and do good because what He started He will complete. Just keep in mind that sometimes in between the start and the finish work there is brokenness. Give it to Him. Keep trusting Him and He will make your paths straight!
Be encouraged dear friends! You are so dearly loved and cared for and God delights in YOU
! He is our healer! He is our restorer! He is the only one who can turn our mourning into dancing and our Brokeness into something beautiful!
