Broken lives and wounded hearts.

Broken lives and wounded hearts

But I am a worm and not a man. I am scorned and despised by all! – Psalms 22:6

Isaiah 48:17-22

 17 This is what the LORD says – your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is good for you and leads you along the paths you should follow.

 18 Oh, that you had listened to my commands! Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea.

 20 Yet even now, be free from your captivity! . . . Shout it to the ends of the earth! The LORD has redeemed his servants, the people of Israel.

 22 “But there is no peace for the wicked,” says the LORD.

Throughout the United States there are local, independent thrift stores. There are also several thrift store corporations. They specialize in reselling items that are no longer needed or desired by the owner.

In America, things that are no longer needed, broken, or even no longer in style are routinely discarded. If we determine we no longer need them, we throw them away. Damaged goods are rejected.

Sadly this includes people. When relationships break down in marriage, the tendency is to walk away rather than repair. Planet Earth is full of people with wounded hearts, broken spirits, and broken relationships.

To fallen humanity, broken things are despised as worthless. But marvelously the Father has a totally different perspective. He seeks people that are broken and wounded. He is in the business of recycling human souls. The in-store motto is “Redemption and Transformation Found Here.”

From the tragedy of broken lives and wounded hearts, He creates something far better. The Father takes great delight in doing so. In this line of work, He has no competition.

When our lives are broken and our hearts are dreadfully wounded, we have tremendous self-image issues. We feel inadequate and unworthy, even despicable, and riddled with shame. In the Scriptures, there is a metaphor employed to depict such difficult and despairing moments. People feel “like worms.” They are “poor in spirit.”

Psalms 22:6 I am a worm and not a man. I am scorned and despised by all!

REFLECT & PRAY

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. – Psalms 34:18

Father thank You that You draw close to each child of the King who is spiritually wounded and brokenhearted. Repair my heart and allow me to experience the joy of my salvation more and more, day by day.

INSIGHT

When we reach a breaking point, many of us earnestly seek the Father. In the kingdom of God, the Father uses broken lives and wounded hearts to draw us to Himself. The Father calls to us. And yearns for us to listen and come to Him so He can make us whole. Sadly, we look inward at our brokenness and unworthiness, rather than hear His voice. We often try to keep ourselves occupied and busy to dull the ache and simply do not hear His call. Thus we doom ourselves to limp through life feeling miserable and defective. We get stuck in a cycle of self-recrimination, gloom, and darkness. We fail to grasp that we can be made whole. Inner regeneration and transformation are the deepest need of each person.

Matthew 5:3 God blesses those who are poor in spirit and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

When we reach a breaking point, many of us earnestly seek the Father. When we come to the Father with shattered lives, He alone is capable of taking broken and wounded hearts and making them whole. The Father is ready and able to break the cycle of the past and make everything new.

2 Corinthians 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

Only when we take our eyes off ourselves and stop ruminating on the past, can this inner transformation be realized. When we recognize our utter need for the Father, we are able to focus more on Him. Our brokenness is but the end of the beginning, and the beginning of the rest lives seeking to walk with Him.

As we place the Father at the center of our lives, a unique and wonderful healing process occurs from the inside out. He conforms us more and more to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ and gradually makes us into what He wants us to be. Things begin to fall in place and come together in ways we could never have imagined. The Father never changes and His mercy never falters.

Great is Thy faithfulness

“Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with You;

You change not, Your compassions, they fail not as You have been You forever will be.

“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!” Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided – “Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest, sun, moon, and stars in their courses above,

Join with all nature in manifold witness to Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endures, Your own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

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