broken but repairable...

The beauty of brokenness is a beauty very few see today because of a prideful and self-glorifying heart. Our culture continues to believe we can do anything we want at any time and that cry of self-sufficiency plagues our world and intimidates the lives of believers. We are many times scared of being broken because it will show us to be weak and needy. That kind of posture goes against the very grain of who we are as Americans and American Christians. The truth is God is all about breaking our prideful hearts and messing everything that is us up so He can put things back in order — His order. What does it take to be broken?

We would think circumstances drive us to brokenness and even though circumstances will bring the need for brokenness to the forefront of our minds, that doesn’t CAUSE brokenness. If circumstances were the cause, we would get broken during the bad times and forget God during the good. That is the present condition of many Christians today and it causes us to live in the world of temporal repentance that is weak and definitely not lasting. What drives us to true, lasting brokenness is a heart of faith. Faith that God is our Savior and Lord. Faith that His way is the best way. Faith that we are weak and He is our strength. Faith that I can’t make it one step without Him. To try and make it on our own makes us a spiritual quadriplegic. That’s because we must allow Him to once again fill our life with the strength to walk and feel His presence fresh and anew. If we are numb to His commands we can’t function. Everything will be out of place and we will be virtually unable to do anything, paralyzed as a child of God. This should not be.

How can we get out of the paralysis we are experiencing? We must allow God to revive the four elements of our life and make them “feel” again. You know them: heart, soul, mind and strength. This is the part where we can actually do something. Love God with all you are and allow Him to breathe life back into the parched or numb areas of your life. Remember the day of your salvation and how He gave you new life and what changes took place when that happened. When you do that, God will say, “Get up and walk.” Oh, the joy to rise out of the wheelchair of apathy and live a life where we have all feeling in our spiritual limbs once again! I knew an evangelist who was a quadriplegic and a few years ago I asked him, “Do you have any regrets or wishes now that you are confined to a wheelchair?” He said, “I only wish I would have done more with my arms and legs when they were working.”

Don’t delay! Turn to God with a broken heart and allow Him to mend it and fill it with His love. That love will give you the capability to love Him more and be able to walk the walk like He commanded us to do. In Joel 2:12-13, the Lord says, “even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning...for He is gracious and compassionate.” Now is the time for all of us to return. We are broken... but repairable.

The Pilgrimage continues...

David Warren