Gracefully Broken
Have you ever been faced with life altering, defining moments when you felt as though you were drowning in the treacherous waters of life and you desperately needed to hear the voice of God? Have you experienced a moment in time when your soul was so shattered and broken you felt there was no way you could ever be whole again? Can you recall any times you have felt ashamed, unworthy, unlovable, and just not okay?
I do not know what storms you are being faced with in life, but what I do know is this. Whether deep within a valley or on a spiritual high, we are all broken, we are all on a healing journey, and we are all in desperate need of Jesus. We need to come to a place where we are okay with not being okay.
This doesn’t mean you are weak, less than, or that you don’t have a strong relationship with the Lord. What it means is that you are human and there are days the wind gets knocked out of you and you fall to your knees in desperation, like we all do. If you didn’t struggle, you wouldn’t be you. David, Jesus, and all the heroes and heroines of the Bible struggled and cried out to God when they were overwhelmed with sadness and anguish. It’s okay to be broken, it’s okay to cry out to God when you feel He is not near or answering your prayers, and it’s okay not to be okay. But it’s in those days that we are not okay that we need to choose to have joy in the Lord, not happiness, because there are many days we do not come into alignment with happiness, but we choose joy in the Lord because we know there is an indescribable hope that can only be found in Him.
His word, His truths, and His promises bring healing and restoration to our broken souls. As we inhale in His faithfulness, we are able to soar high on His wings as we breathe in His healing and purifying shalom peace. His word promises He will never leave us or forsake us. It might not look the way you wanted it to, and it may not have happened in your time frame, but He always shows up. Sometimes it’s hard to keep the faith and endure the storms. But He commands us in Scripture to praise Him in and through all things. Even when it hurts, we praise Him. Even when we are blinded by our circumstances, we praise Him. Even when we feel we are drowning or in a fierce fire, we praise Him. Why? Because when we praise Him our eyes stop focusing on ourselves and become fixed on Him. It shifts our focus from defeat to glory. He is an all consuming loving God who hears the deep cries from the cellars of our souls and He disperses His angels time and time again, reminding us of who we are and who He has called us to be. He continuously shines His majestic light upon the darkest areas of our journey, guiding and reminding us that nothing is impossible through Christ Jesus.
I encourage you today, no matter where you are in your journey, to allow Him to embrace you, hold you, and lavish you with His undeniable love. Allow Him to take you deeper and to restore what has been scarred and broken inside. I have had my walls up, I have shut Him out during devastating seasons—but I have also welcomed Him in so I could experience unity and freedom in Him. Once you have that encounter, that transforming moment where He meets you and pours His anointed, supernatural, unfailing love into your soul, you will stand in awe and in reverence of just how magnificent He is. It’s simply blissful.
