The Blessings of Brokenness

Within the last several years my faith has been tested and sometimes I wondered why Lord? Why would you give me a vision and take it away? In February 2005, the decision was made not by man, yet by God, to bring us out from what we knew as our home church. To sell the building  that God had given me the vision to build for His people. At the beginning of this process I prayed and asked God to show me the way, the fog had gotten thick and I needed God’s guidance. Lord, what will people say and think? Going through this transformation I questioned myself and asked the Lord, “have I failed you and your people?”

When God breaks us, he does so with the purpose of putting us back together again better than before, and ultimately, so that we might be whole and stand firm on His foundation. Thinking of the Words BROKEN, BLESSED, how can those two words possibly go together? Considering just how shattering life’s blows can be; can we honestly believe God will bring good out of our most heartbreaking crises? I will be the first to say that it is “difficult to discern the blessing in the midst of brokenness.” Certain circumstances in life hurt, at times so intensely that we think we will never heal. It could be the death of a loved one, a lingering illness, or the closing of a church. I can say nothing feels blessed about being broken. One of the most painful times of my life was having the thought of selling the church, this is a time when I felt broken. I don’t like pain or the feeling of brokenness any more than anybody else does. Yet when the process began and the church was sold, there was peace in my spirit. 

One of the things I have discovered through being broken is that after the brokenness we can experience God’s greatest blessing. After brokenness our lives can be the most fruitful and have the most purpose. The dawn after a very dark and storm wreaked night is glorious. Feeling joy again after a period of intense mourning can be ecstatic. A blessing can come in the wake of being broken. But this blessing comes only if we experience brokenness fully and confront why it is that God has allowed us to be broken. If we allow God to complete the work in us, blessings will follow brokenness. 

Most people do not understand what the Bible teaches about brokenness; therefore, the last thing they want in life is to experience it. Rather, they spare no effort in running from brokenness, yet talk about those that experience it. This is how they miss their blessing. In a time when we hear so much talk about prosperity, about God healing our illness, about God desiring our happiness; the message of brokenness does not appeal to many people. In fact, it only appeals to those who want God’s best! Why do I say that? Because God is in the process of changing what we desire, far more than He is in the process of giving us what we desire. God is refining us and making us into the people with who he wants to live forever. 

Brokenness is what God uses to replace our self-life with his desires and intents for us. The blessing is far greater than we could ever discover apart from being broken: spiritual maturity and joyous intimacy with God; greater depth and power in ministry to others; new dimensions of freedom, strength and peace. God didn’t create us to give us our every whim and wish, but rather, to bring us to the position where we will want to do whatever God desires. He created us for himself. It is not about us. It is about a wholeness that comes as God himself reassembles us into someone more closely resembling Jesus Christ.

Written by Elder Edward C. Rose - April 6, 2006