Broken Is Beautiful (Part 2)

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Matthew 11:28-30

I have been in a broken season lately.  There are no medical crises in my life, just a real working of God in me.  I sincerely desire God to work His beauty in my brokenness.  However, I have trust and control issues.  For me, allowing God to work in my brokenness is hard.  It leaves me weary.  Often, I find myself questioning God with questions like:

"Are you sure God you know what you're doing?"
"God, this doesn't feel good, can you assure me you are using it for good?"
"God, could you write on the wall for me what you are doing in my life?"
"God, could you work quicker?"
"God, can I learn faster?"

In the middle of these seasons, God gently reminds me of His word--Come to me all who are weary, and I will give you rest.

I don't know about you, I don't always want rest, I want writing on the wall, I want answers, I want to know precisely what God is going to do with the broken in my life.  But God says, come I will give you rest.  This word rest in the Greek is anapauo. I read that one of the definitions of this word is a calm expectation.  Lysa Terkurst rephrases this idea like this:  "In other words, Jesus is saying, If you come to Me, I will take your exhaustion and uncertainty and turn it into a calm expectation."

What a beautiful picture!  In our brokenness, we can come to Jesus, and He will take our brokenness, and we can trust Him to give us a calm expectation of the beauty that He is creating.

Philippians 1:6 states, 'And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.'  We know that God has begun working His beauty in our lives and we can have a calm expectation that He will continue turning broken into beauty.

May we not fight God's working in our lives.  May we allow God to heal the pain, to create beauty from ashes, and to arrange the broken places for His purpose.  May we watch God raise.

--Karen Smith

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Comfort Trap

Image
'One person dies in prosperity, completely comfortable and secure, the picture of good health, vigorous and fit. Another person dies in bitter poverty, never having tasted the good life. But both are buried in the same dust, both eaten by the same maggots.' Job 21:23-26 One of my favorite music groups of all time is a little-known group, House of Heroes .  I had them in for a fundraising concert several years ago.  Early in the show, they performed one of my favorite songs;  The Comfort Trap .  Here are just a few words from that song: I'm gonna get nice things and get my way Even if it means there's hell to pay I'm gonna have my cake and eat it too And what I don't eat I'm gonna force feed you I'm not looking for consolation Maybe I can settle for compensation Have my cake and eat it too And if it's all a lie, I'm gonna say it's all true It seems to be a universal state of our world that if what we think is a l...
Read more

People of Vision

Without revelation, people run wild, but one who follows divine instruction will be happy. Proverbs 29:18 I have had excellent vision for most of my life.  My sight was better than 20/20.  When I was in late high school, I was told by my optometrist that I was going to have a hard time as I got older.  I asked, "Why?"  He said, "Your eyesight is going to get worse as everyone's does.  You're going to think you need glasses, but no optometrist is going to give you eyeglasses for 20/20 sight."  My vision didn't last as long as I would have liked due to MS.  I now see an ophthalmologist annually which I visited this past week.  They have the worst games!  "One or two?"  "Which line can you read?"  "Better or worse?"  Augh!  If I could see well I would tell them?  Isn't that why I went to the eye doctor?  To correct my vision that I know is flawed?  And my eyes are fine.  My eye shape and lense...
Read more

Death Precedes Life

Image
"So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.” But when Jesus heard about it he said,“Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days." John 11:3-6   Author Henry James said, "Life is a predicament that precedes death." The caterpillar appears to be a full animal. It eats on leaves. It crawls around and tries to avoid being eaten by birds and other predators. From a passing glance, the caterpillar appears complete. From an anthropomorphized view, the caterpillar thinks itself complete. We know that the caterpillar is but a butterfly pupae; an immature form. It is nothing like what it will be. The caterpillar must go through a metamorphosis that resembles death. The outer-layer dies forming a chrysalis that inside the butterfl...
Read more