(Warning: I backed up my argument to the MAX with Bible references. I honestly believe if I had any more Bible references in this blog post I probably could have just physically handed you a Bible to read. I would apologize for the extreme amount of references in this post but I'm not sorry for it. We have a Bible-illiterate culture nowadays and this is my small attempt to try and fix it!)
Let's start.
The quickest recap you've ever experienced:
1. "a glad heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken" (Proverbs 15:13). We experience brokenness through sorrow in our heart. We can begin healing from brokenness by (i) allowing ourselves to grieve and (ii) crying out to God -- He is our refuge and strength!
2. "[the sacrifice acceptable] to God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart [broken down with sorrow... " (Psalm 51:17 AMP). We are all broken. However, when we sacrifice our brokenness to God we can have a deeper relationship with Him.
Today's focus comes from John 12:24 where Jesus tells his disciples "truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
Alright, it's time to be blunt again. I think brokenness causes a from of death inside of us. There's something permanent that can occur when a heart is broken. Two days ago I wrote about how our hearts don't have to be broken forever because we can find healing through God. I still believe this is true; however, when God puts the pieces of our hearts back together he makes it a little softer than it was before. We, of course, then have the opportunity to make it hard again if we choose, or we can accept this new heart inside of us and even allow God to soften it up some more. Our hearts don't have to be permanently broken after being dropped on the ground; but, they can be permanently softer if we choose compassion over hard-hearts.
Furthermore (the bluntness continues), there's a death that occurs from sacrificing our broken hearts to God (see yesterday's post). By sacrificing anything to God we are denying ourselves and choosing to follow God's ways. This denial of self is fundamentally a death to our earthly desires.
Now both of these situations I've just described are disguised as bad situations because they both involve "death". However, because we serve and awesome God, we know that God never brings about death without the promise of a better life. Jesus said that whoever tried to save their life would actually lose it and whoever lost their life for Him would actually save it (Luke 9:24). Paul wrote to the Ephesians about how we are "made alive in Christ, even when we were dead in our transgressions" (2:5) and to the Romans about how "if Christ is in [us, our] bodies are dead because of sin, yet [our] spirit is alive because of righteousness" (Romans 8:10).
Nonetheless, John 12:24 ("unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit") doesn't focus specifically on our physical lives but instead on what we do with our lives. By experiencing brokenness we have the tendency to believe we will no longer be of any use to God; the exact opposite of this is true. God has always used broken people for His kingdom.
Today I was talking with a friend who said he wished he could be more like Noah or David because they seemed to be perfect men. I was almost slightly offended by his statement and thought I would correct him by going on a five minute rant about how completely imperfect these men were. If you're currently a child that still attends Sunday school sorry for the spoiler alert but Noah and David both messed up, big time. On one hand we have Noah, who got drunk, passed out naked, and then woke up and cursed his own son for making fun of him (Genesis 9:21-25). On the other hand we have David, who seduced and slept with a married woman (2 Samuel 11:3-5); indirectly murdered her husband (2 Samuel 11:14-17); raised a son who raped a woman (2 Samuel 13:11-13), murdered his own brother (2 Samuel 13:28-29), and then led a rebellion against his father (2 Samuel 15:7-14); and then David committed a final sin of going against God's wishes and taking a census of his people (2 Samuel 24:1). Yet, Noah was chosen to save all the animals on earth and repopulate the world, and David has forever been remembered as the man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22).
Brokenness isn't a life sentence of spiritual barrenness. Yes, we have to come to terms with the fact that we've experienced heartbreak and sorrow. Although we may seem like a dead seed to the world, God sees more than that! God sees not just the dead seed that's inside of us but the tree that can form from the seed, the fruit that can form from the tree, the seeds that can form from the fruit, the trees that can form from the seeds, the fruit that can form from trees, and the orchard that can be produced in our life (Dr.Myles Munroe). So you see, death is a precursor for true life.
We die to the hurt that has struck in our lives, and live for the love God has placed in our past, present, and future. We die to the labels the world has given us, and live for the identity God has given us. We die to the expectations society has forced on us, and live out the callings God has placed in our hearts. There is no need to worry dear one, God has a plan for your life. Don't be discouraged by the brokenness you've experienced and don't be pessimistic about the deaths you will face. They're just an end that will be used for a beginning, a broken road that will lead you straight to fate.
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