Brokenness is what you experience when you are stripped of everything, bankrupt, crushed by grief or despair, made weak, and not complete or full. I am sure you can add more, but you get the idea. I have often wondered why we have it and have looked upon it as being a very negative condition that hinders any happiness that we may seek to find. Boy was I wrong.
Follow me for just a minute. After the fall of man in Genesis chapter 3, sin entered and stained this world that God created for man. We now live in a fallen world because of it. Did God want man to live for ever in this state? No, look carefully at vs 22-24. God said , "And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever". Then God sent man out of the garden and placed a cherubim to guard the way to the tree of life. Why is this important? God did not and does not want man to live in this fallen world forever. He immediately put a plan in place to draw us back to Him so we can live with Him, where there is no sin, for all eternity. And to show us that He wants that to happen, He sent His only son Jesus to die for us. He still gives man the choice to choose to accept His love or not. Does He still love us? Yes, look at 2Pet. 3:9. ...not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (NKJV) to warn us He says in 1John 2:15 to not love this world or the things in this world. Why? He does not want us to become so attached to this world that we miss the one he has prepared for us.
This answers the age old question," why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?" He allows it so we will come back to Him. The book of Job shows us that God allowed Satan to afflict Job. Satan's main purpose was to get Job to curse God. That didn't happen. We have the advantage over Job because he didn't know why God was allowing this but we do.
There is a parable in Luke that gives me great comfort. It is the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).
The loving father gave his younger son his inheritance and it says the son went into a far country. I want to ask you, what did the son want more, his money or his independence from his father? Notice, he went to a far country far away from his father. A father that loved him and blessed him with his inheritance. Did the younger son show any gratitude? All I see is, that he wanted his possessions and his own independent life. Is any of this starting to sound familiar?
When did the prodigal son remember his father? When he was living it up in the world having money to spend on his pleasures or when he was eating slop with the hogs? You got it. He first had to experience extreme brokenness before, as it says, came to himself.
The most beautiful part of this parable is the father never stopped loving his son. He watched for him every day hoping, yes hoping, he would come home. Also, the son knew who to come home to, but never realized there would be such a homecoming feast awaiting him.
After writing this, I welcome brokenness. My brokenness has brought me closer to God. God has used brokenness in my life to cause me to shift my life in a direction that best serves him. I still do not understand all the trials that we all experience but I do know this , God is in control and if we let Him, He will one day make it right.
Satan uses our brokenness to get us to curse God, but remember, God allows him to do it so we will be like the prodigal, come to ourself, and return back to Him.
I now can rejoice knowing that God always wants us to come home and be with Him and when I stray off that path to Him, he allows trials in this life to get me back on the path.
Read Habakkuk chapter 3:17-18. Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut of from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls; Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
We need to rejoice that we can have salvation in Jesus. This helps us overcome any degree of brokenness that we may be experiencing.
I need to finish for today. Thank you so much for reading this. Please feel free to send your comments to: rhepler52@gmail.com
I hope you have a good day and if this helps you please pass it on to someone else who might enjoy reading it.
Thanks,
Rick Hepler
