Freedom from Brokenness

 

"SOMETIMES GOD HAS TO BREAK US TO REMAKE US IN HIS IMAGE"

1 Corinthians 10:13- "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."

Our world is full of broken people. 
I have been one of them. 
You probably have been one too.

  I believe all of us have or will come to a point in our lives where we feel wholly and completely broken. Life circumstances laying heavy on our heart, the loss of a loved one, committing a great sin, giving up on God. There are many reasons why one may feel overcome with brokenness and heartache. Some live held in bondage to this feeling all of their life, while some break free from the chains of loneliness, guilt, and despair. A broken heart can be fixed, but so often people leave it as it is. 
 Chattered and dark. 

    I want to share with y'all what I believe are different kinds of brokenness, why we are enslaved by it, and how we can become free from it.

1. Broken Dreams

  This kind of brokenness is brought forth by unmet expectations. Whether its the loss of a job, the end of a precious relationship, the death of a loved one, betrayal from a friend, or our own shortcomings to succeed. Many people will allow the burden of failing to crush their spirit. They find themselves broken and constantly discontent with their lives, the people in their lives, and themselves. This person has no hope and as the Bible says, "hope deferred maketh the heart sick."  A broken person is a person who has lost sight of hope. 
    Sometimes God doesn't change your situation because He's trying to change your heart. Your dreams for your life need to match God's dreams for your life. God can only truly bless a broken life that's placed in HIS hands. He can use brokenness in great ways. A broken person can do GREAT things for God if they let God remake them into His beautiful handiwork. The problem is, God can only do this with someone who gives their broken dreams to Him and allows Him to give them new ones.

2. Broken Sin

   As born again believers we have the Holy Spirit dwelling with in us. This means that when we sin we grieve the Holy Spirit. Many Christians hold on to the pain of guilt instead of placing their wrongdoing in the hands of an almighty God. Many are plagued with guilt while some are continuously falling into temptation because they have not received spiritual victory. God's Word says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." God promises to heal those who come to Him. He promises not only to forgive our sins but to CLEANSE us from sin. This means that we have the power to overcome addictions and temptations because our God has the power to wash us white as snow--we just have to learn to let him. God also promises to give us an escape from temptation. He always promises to give us a way out. He promises us that we can claim freedom from brokenness by placing our faith in Him.

3. Broken Bitterness

   So many people are holding on to bitterness as if it is their best friend. Many women have been harmed either physically, mentally, or verbally. Instead of giving these feelings of hurt over to the Lord they carry it with them every day. There are many hurting individuals who are held captive by thoughts of bitterness. Once a person chooses to live constantly dwelling on past hurts they will never be able to experience the joy of Christ. God has the power to heal your brokenness but only if you're willing to let go of the pain you're holding. So many of us are too proud to let go of bitterness--mainly because we don't even realize we are bitter! If someone or something has hurt you in the past and it continues to take the joy out of your life you are living in bitterness.

    There are many other reasons an individual may feel the pain of brokenness but I feel like these are the main causes. Although brokenness seems painful, discouraging, and wicked there can actually be times when God need us to break.

God can't remake us if he doesn't break us first! Whether or not we let him fix us is what really matters. God can work all things together for good--but we have to let Him.

Brokenness is not a bad thing unless we remain broken. We shouldn't be "stuck" in our sin, in our grief, or in our bitterness. We can receive victory!

Here are three ways to receive victory over a broken spirit.

1. Confess and forsake
Revelation 3:19- "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent."  If there is a sin in your life that you can't seem to get away from? A temptation too big to resist? A guilt that traps you from serving God? God is bigger than your sin. And He can give you spiritual victory. God wants you to be broken over your sin-to realize how it hurts Him. But He also wants you to lay your brokenness at His feet so that He can heal you!

2. Find contentment
Many people feel broken over a circumstance that has happened that cannot be changed. Some are broken because they hate how their life is playing out before them. To find healing for your broken spirit you must realize that God is ALWAYS good and find peace in the midst of the storm. We must learn to be content in any state of life. If one is always wishing their life was different and complaining about circumstances they will always feel empty and broken inside. Learn to find joy and healing in the journey of life-turn to God.

3. Devote your life to God
There is no greater joy found in life than serving the Saviour. If you're feeling like your life has no meaning or purpose than give it over to God-He'll give you rest. A life lived selfishly is a life lived uselessly. Your life will have no meaning if you refuse to give God your broken dreams and allow him to remake you into His beautiful creation.

 Let Him transform your brokenness into a beautiful masterpiece!

Psalms 147:3 - "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds."

Elevating God = Demoting Self

John 3:30-" He must increase, but I must decrease."

        The elevation of God in our lives can only be achieved by the decreasing of another thing. God can not be held higher if something is not lowered.  In the dictionary, "elevated" means- to be raised to a more important or impressive level. It's not simply slightly higher than the rest, it's noticeably and distinctively higher. We seem to think that wearing christian t-shirts, listening to christian music, avoiding sin, going to church on Sunday, and being nice to our neighbors is putting God first. Frankly, that's not putting Him first. It's putting him as a priority but not the priority.

       God should be bigger than just someone we advertise. He should take up more of our time then just attending church (and some even go only when it's convenient with their schedule). God should be reverenced more. The norm of Christianity today is nothing more than advertising our God as a guardian angel and peace keeper. He's advertised as being our home boy, being lit, our rock star, and our homie. Instead of being reverenced we shrink Him down to our level. God is far more important and holy than anything we could imagine. It breaks my heart how His glorious name has been shrunk to such a low level. God deserves more-He deserves reverence. He deserves to be elevated above the trends and fads of our day.

Instead of living a life dedicated to Christ we just dedicate our social media accounts to Him. 

We've replaced winning souls with wearing christian t-shirts. 

We've replaced sacred worship with rock concerts. 

GOD IS NOT ELEVATED. HE IS NOT FIRST.

How do we fix this reverence crisis? How can we elevate God higher than any other? Why does it seem so hard to reverence Him like we should?
It's simple.

Just a simple equation we so often miss...

GOD>ME
God is greater than me.

       We say it so often. We think we believe it but yet we so often do not live it. God is greater. He IS. Whether we live for His glory or not, He will always be greater. But how foolish of us to realize His greatness and yet we still do not raise Him to that level of greatness in our lives. In order for us to elevate God higher than anything- we must shrink ourselves to nothing. 

When we decrease ourselves we decrease our distractions. 

We decrease our selfishness.

We decrease our sin. 

We decrease our pride.

When we isolate ourselves from our fleshly desires we will then be able to elevate God. 

      How high is God in your life today? Is He higher than you? Is He higher than your spouse or boy/girl friend? Is He higher than your children? Your job? Your comfort zone? We must learn to isolate ourselves from this world. 

We must learn to make God's desires our desires. 

  We live in such a self-centered world.  A world that yearns for attention, yearns for happiness, yearns to be comfortable. 

Elevating God is not comfortable.

 It is hard. 

It is humbling. 

It is worship in its truest form. 

    The reason so many Christians don't elevate God like they should is because its hard. Dying to self is painful. Uncomfortable. Yet John realized how vitally important it is. God's glory needs to be manifested through His people. We are failing God-I am failing God. We put ourselves on the throne of our lives. We act like sitting through a church service is real sacrifice. We assume that being moral in a heathen world is sacrifice. We're wrong. Our supposed sacrifices for the Lord are marbles compared to the mountains He's crossed for us. We do not exalt Him like we should. 

How empty life is without God. Yet He can not live through us unless we die to self.

Remove yourself from the throne of your life. Let God take control. True freedom can only be found in a heart completely surrendered to God. When we die to self that's when true life begins.

Blessings,

Brittney Dods

The presence of our past

THE PRESENCE OF OUR PAST

"The realities of how our past affects our present"

Philippians 3:13 - 

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before"

I'm sure many of you, like me, have heard the popular phrase, "Your past doesn't define you." or "Your past is in the past." But the truth is, that up to this point in your life, it does define you. All your past feelings, emotions, successes, failures, and choices have made you who you are today. Your decisions yesterday pushed you towards where you are today. Now obviously, I believe we need to move on from our past and embrace the future. I'm going to talk about that, but we can also look at our past as defining moments of our history that God has allowed to create an incredible future for us...if we let Him. Many Christians today like to make excuses for people's past. We live in a culture that's all about "second chances" and "creating the new you." The problem is that we have two extremes when it comes to our past - either we choose to completely ignore it and hide it or we constantly rehash on it and blame our current status on what "used to be." I know I've been on both ends of the spectrum. The truth is that we should look at our whole life - past, present, and future as a gift from God. Something we can use to further glorify Him. But unfortunately, many of us do not. 

There are two main thoughts I want to communicate with you today. First is this-

Are you allowing your past successes to excuse your present shortcomings?

or

Are you allowing your past failures to affect your present faithfulness?
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The things that hold us in the past are not usually positive things. The top feelings and emotions that chain us back from fully living our life today are:

  1. Guilt

- often we can't get past a wrong we've done in the past. This is often because we have failed to get things right or because we are not claiming the grace and forgiveness found in Christ. (Jeremiah 33:8-And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.)

  2. Regret

- Many have long been chained to the overwhelming feeling of regret. They constantly relive their mistakes over and over in their mind, never truly moving on. We must learn to accept the things that we can not change and realize that God can still use us, no matter what regrets we may have. We serve a Saviour who can transform impossible circumstances into unfathomable blessings. (Romans 8:28-  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

  3. Bitterness

-I know personally that this is one that can literally eat us alive. Holding grudges against those who have hurt us can take over every single day of our life. Until we learn to let go of past hurts, we will never be able to move on. Bitterness is a disease that will destroy all of our future, if we refuse to give it over to the Lord. Just because your bitterness is understandable does not make it acceptable. We must learn to love and forgive people - even when they have done us wrong. God cannot fix our broken relationships, if we are unwilling to give them to Him! When we are bitter towards another, we are literally sinning against God. (Ephesians 4:31 - Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:)

  4. Discontentment/Not wanting to accept things 

- It is so easy to constantly ask ourselves the question - "What if?" We can always find ways that we feel like we could have done a better job, made better decisions, or said something differently. Instead of asking ourselves the question, "what if?" we should be asking ourselves, "what now?" God wants to use you RIGHT NOW. Don't get caught up wishing things were different. (Jeremiah 29:11-For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.)

5. Loss

- one of the hardest things in life is loosing someone you truly love.  Many of us have had to go through some very trying experiences and losses. Some of us have lost those we love by death, and others by the end of a relationship.We must learn to grow through what we go through. Healing can only be found in the Lord, and if we keep resurfacing old wounds we will never heal. Loosing someone is a pain that you will always carry with you, but God says that He will carry our burdens for us. And when we learn to find comfort in His presence, we will learn to be content and happy in the present state of our lives. Don't dwell on your past losses, but on your present blessings! (Jeremiah 29:11-For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.)

If you are struggling with any of the things I mentioned above, you must come to realize that these past mistakes and faulty mindsets are hindering you from fully serving the Lord today!

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 Now that we've talked about past mistakes I just want to write a little bit about past successes. In the Bible we read about king David-he was a man who was known throughout the nations as a true man of God. He was greatly favored and had lived a life well-pleasing unto the Lord. But eventually his clear and perfect record was destroyed. He committed adultery with Bathsheba, and to make it even worse, successfully plotted the death of a man. David allowed his past successes to build a wall of pride in his life, and because of this, he allowed himself to slip up. Don't ever get to a place where you feel like you're "good enough." David had found too much security in his well-doing. 

  As you continue reading David's story, you will see that David had to relive his past, but in the context of this story it wasn't wrong. David needed to revisit his past to get right with the Lord in the present! Nathan brought up David's past to him-not to judge him or to ridicule him, but to make him aware of his wrong doing. David had to make things right. Although David repented and made things right with the Lord, he still had consequences for his wrong doing! 

Here are just a few things we can learn from this story pertaining to our past:

1. We MUST make things right in our past to move on to the future. IGNORING our past is NOT the answer- although that may seem to be the new popular belief.

2. When David tried to continue on in his life, without repenting of his sins, he was miserable

3. David allowed his past successes to cloud his present judgement

4. God judges David for his wrong-doing. We will not get away with past sins, BUT God has promised to forgive us of those sins, if we go before him with a spirit of repentance.

5. God used David AFTER he confessed his wrong doing to do amazing things for Him. David was now more cautious of his wicked human heart and learned to fully depend on God.

How is your past defining your present? Don't let your past steal your present! You cannot erase your past, but your future is a clean slate. Your past will always be a part of who you are, but God can use it in amazing ways. Give him your past, your present, and your future, and you will see how God can make your life truly beautiful.