Brokenness


Image credit

Things break due to wear and tear or accidents. They usually end up in the trash. People are like that at times. Somebody wrote,
In this world, broken things are despised and thrown out. Anything we no longer need, we throw away. Damaged goods are rejected, and that includes people. In marriage, when relationships break down, the tendency is to walk away and find someone new rather than work at reconciliation. The world is full of people with broken hearts, broken spirits and broken relationships. [1]
Most, if not all of us who read this are broken in one way or another. We all have weaknesses. We all have failed. We all have sinned. We have hurt and have been hurt by others. We have not been whole from the start, anyway. We were born sinners. We are already broken the moment we were conceived. As we live our sinful lives and as we live in this broken world, we continually experience it.

Image credit

But in the midst of all these, we can all experience grace.
There is something about reaching a breaking point that causes us to seek the Lord more sincerely. … There are some things in our lives that need to be broken: pride, self-will, stubbornness, and sinful habits, for example. When we feel our brokenness, God compensates… [2]
The burden of brokenness need not break our backs. But it should drive us to our knees to declare our need for God.

Image credit

In that broken condition, we meet God.
I am the high and holy God, who lives forever. I live in a high and holy place, but I also live with people who are humble and repentant, so that I can restore their confidence and hope. (Isaiah 57:15, GNB)
Just imagine! The almighty God would meet us where we are, right there in our brokenness. And, He promised, “I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.” (Isaiah 57:15b, NLT)

If we think that God no longer cares for us in our brokenness, we are so wrong.  Our brokenness is His starting point, too. He gathers the broken pieces and makes us whole. But He could only do that if we acknowledge our brokenness before Him through humility and repentance.

“Broken” Step

Read Isaiah 57 slowly and repeatedly, preferably using different Bible versions. You may use https://www.biblegateway.com/. Write down your reflections about brokenness according to Isaiah 57.

[1] “What does the Bible say about brokenness?” Got Questions? retrieved from http://www.gotquestions.org/. Emphasis added.
[2] Ibid. Emphasis added.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“Ubus-ubos Biyaya, Bukas Nakatunganga”

Image
That’s what my mother always told us when we were still kids. (Translation: “You spend everything today, you will have nothing tomorrow.” ) Image source: So, What's New ? Dionie did just that. Last April 2008, he won PHP14,125,032 in the Lotto 6/42 draw. Excitedly, he “lived the life of a millionaire, something he had been longing to experience. He lived in a P4-million house in a posh subdivision, drove around in a sports utility vehicle [which he bought the very same day he claimed his prize] , and gave goodwill money, ranging P1,000 to P 850,000, to relatives and friends. He also gambled daily, womanized, and went on regular drinking sprees.” (Source: Manila Bulletin ) He estimated that he squandered a minimum of P100,000 almost every day. He also lent money even to people he did not really know. “I just gave them and told them not to pay me back.” (Ibid) His bank had to issue him a special card so he can withdraw huge amounts of money quickly from the automated teller m
Read more

God Knows Judas Not Pay

In the National Geographic Magazine (May 2006 issue), in its cover story, The Judas Gospel , Professor Eliane Pagels of Princeton University claimed that the so-called gospel of Judas “ changes the history of early Christianity. ” Even UP Professor Randy David took notice of the Judas Gospel: “Strictly from a sociological standpoint, I think the discovery of the Gospel of Judas makes Christianity a far more interesting religion than what centuries of metaphysical theology has made of it.” (A Gospel for the Postmodern, Phil. Daily Inquirer, April 16, 2006) That’s why I spoke in our Young Pro Fellowship a few days ago on God Knows Judas Not Pay (A Biblical Response on the Judas Gospel). I believe opportunities like this hype on the Judas Gospel or the Da Vinci Code opens a door for us to share the true Gospel. For those who did not attend last Thursday, let me share briefly why we reject the Judas gospel. I came up with the acronym J-U-D-A-S. J udas was portrayed as a traitor in the Bibl
Read more

“Don’t drink the Kool-Aid!”

Image
Forty years ago, this expression became known as a description of blind obedience.   Source: Los Angeles Times On November 18, 1978, members of Peoples Temple, a cult group in Guyana, drank Kool-Aid drink laced with cyanide to commit a mass suicide “at the behest of their charismatic but paranoid leader, Jim Jones”. [1] According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica , “The death toll exceeded 900, including some 300 age 17 and under, making the incident one of the largest mass deaths in American history. ”  [2]  What made those people submit to such atrocity? According to Stella Morabito, a senior contributor to The Federalist online magazine, Peoples Temple is “Exhibit A… [of]  the dangers of the cult mindset or how vulnerable all people are to cult tactics.”  [3] She pointed out that, Coercive persuasion has immense power to shape and twist the human mind.  …[Jones’] utopian preaching of a humane world in which all lived happily in harmony resonated with the
Read more