Broken and Blessed
Broken and
Blessed
I hope you
are having a great day today. I have
been going through some difficult times and have not done a lot of writing
lately, but here are some thoughts that I have had lately on the subject of brokenness.
There is an interesting verse in the Bible
that I read a long time ago. The verse is in the book of Matthew 21 and verse
44.
“Anyone who falls on this stone will be
broken. If the stone falls on anyone, it will crush that person."
(Matt.
21:44 GW Translation)
There are a couple of different ways to look
at this verse. This verse talks about
two types of people, those who fall on the stone and those whom the stone falls
on. The first could either refer to
someone who falls, or stumbles on the message of Jesus, or it could refer to someone
who willingly falls, or submits to Christ.
When I first read this verse, I felt that it was referring to the
brokenness that someone feels when the surrender their will and their pride to
Jesus. I don’t know how you felt when
you asked Jesus to come into your life as Lord and Savior, but when I did that,
I felt humbled and appreciative for what He had done for me on the cross and I
felt humbled when I acknowledged my sins before the Lord and asked for His
forgiveness.
It is so wonderful that when we bring our
brokenness to Jesus, He carefully picks up the pieces of our lives and begins
to form a new person in Christ. It may
be humbling to surrender to Christ, but He can make something new and wonderful
out of the pieces that we bring to Him.
The other group of people are those whom the stone
falls on. If a person does not humble
themselves and surrender to the authority of Jesus in this life, then they will
see the absolute authority of Jesus in eternity and will be compelled to bow to
His authority then. The verse that describes
this is in Philippians Chapter 2, which is a wonderful and incredible chapter.
This is
why God has given him an exceptional honor- the name honored above all other
names-so that at the name of Jesus everyone in heaven, on earth, and in the
world below will kneel confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father.
(Phil.
2:9-11 GW Translation)
I
guess the important thing is which group do you put yourself in? I read a story some time ago that kind of
illustrates this idea.
There was a
young man who had been asked to share a message with his church congregation. He spent a lot of time studying and preparing
for his message and felt very good about his ability and approached the day
with confidence. He had found some great
illustrations to highlight his points and had created detailed notes of when to
emphasize his points and drive home his conclusions. He preached his message and followed his
notes to the letter. He felt that he had
done a great job and sat down with a lot of confidence.
For some
reason, the congregation was silent and seemed to be unaffected by the message.
The Pastor paused for a moment and then awkwardly
closed the service. The people in the
service wondered why the message failed to move people and fell flat. Some
people thought it was because he failed to communicate his message with passion
and emotion. Some thought it was because
he had done the intellectual study for the message but had failed to touch the
heart. One elderly man in the back said
that he thought the message was fine, but the reason why it failed to touch the
people and why it was a little lackluster was because the young man had not yet
been “broken.” The older man had gone
through a lot of struggles, and difficulties, and hardships in his life and he had responded to life's challenges by being humbled by them, but the young man had not yet gone through much
difficulty and came across a little prideful.
I have had a lot of opportunities in life to
have been humbled. Many of those “opportunities”
were due to my personal failures, and some were provided as a result of the
choices of others in my life, or from the difficulties of living in a fallen
world. Remember that the same sun that can harden the clay can melt the butter. The rays of the sun are the same, but the texture of the surface determines the result. Is your heart more like clay, or butter? I think that with my generally
introverted personality – I tend to beat myself up a little too much when these
kinds of things happen. That is why I
struggle from time to time to write a blog and try and give some advice to
others, when I myself have failed to live up to the expectations of a believer
in Christ. I need to often remind myself to rely more on Christ within me and not my performance, when it comes to where to base my esteem. Here is a great passage in
James that encourage us to be humble in life and allow Christ to give us opportunities
to be lifted.
But he
giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisted the proud, but giveth grace
unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and
he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye
double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be
turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in
the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
(James 4:6-10 KJV)
May
God help us to stay humbled by life and not be lifted in pride and arrogance. May we be broken and not crushed by life.
Written by Lee Malden 2023
For more information: email lmalden@hotmail.com
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