We cannot authentically reflect the full image of Christ without acknowledging and encountering brokenness.
Our suffering exposes the condition of our heart.
It creates a muscle strength of endurance.
It increases its capacity.
Pain avoidance is what we do in the natural.
We are redeemed from being in a place of brokenness.
The redemptive story hangs around suffering and then glory.
God is the only one who is self sufficient.
Our self sufficiency is not synonymous with wholeness.
God is drawn closer to us by our dependency on Him. Drawn by our vulnerability, incomplete, cracks, brokenness.
From that place He can bless us and we can flourish in all those circumstances of the Beatitudes.
Those of us who feel overly successful have the disadvantage of forgetting to rely on Jesus.
We are in danger of relying on ourselves.
Therefore there is a measure of blessing in being vulnerable.
Many of us have difficulty with accepting that we are dependant on God. We have so much that satisfies us and we then fail to recognise our need of Him until it is stripped away in some way.
Our faith is greater in ourselves.
When we remember that our entire existence depend on God.
He is the breath in our lungs.
The life in our veins.
The rhythm in our heart.
Is in creation surrounding us .
We are more likely to pursue full dependency on Him.
This can radically change our perception of brokenness and being stripped as a gift if it re-introduces us to utter dependency.
We can afford to be entirely honest and truthful. Instead of hiding behind words of ‘I’m fine’ we can dare to admit we are not without feeling judgement or shame.
To hide brokenness amounts to an unnecessary deceit. To wear a cloak of shame is not in the will of God.
We can expose what is broken or withered from beneath our cloak and extend it to be healed.
We can have a theology that stretches our endurance .
Grows and stretches us to bear the weight of what lies ahead.
We do not in the natural like being in a weak place. To keep circling the mountain with things unanswered but God in His wisdom knows our needs and prepares us .
Our losses can become our altars to sacrifice ourselves to Him.
He knows what to take through the refining fire.
We want our brokenness to be in the secret place with Him only but public sacrifices is on another level.
Jesus bore public brokenness and humiliation and knows the pain of it.
There is no more shame in what He already knows.
Our will is broken to accept His will be done.
It is not others it is we ourselves who hinder this transformation.
Jesus was lifted up high from the cross. We are lifted high from our suffering, brokenness.
To be fully seen and fully known and loved is what we discover.
Only in that discovery can we walk beside others with that same love. Be His image.
What an honour our weakness has become. We too have the authority to be the sons and daughters and heirs God identifies us as.
Intimacy means into me see.
That intimacy with Jesus and one another lies behind our ability to love and keep the new covenant commandments.
When Peter answered Jesus and told Him
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus knew that Peter knew Him intimately and had encountered God’s inspiration.
He then reciprocated and told Peter who he was.
There is no shame in pain only celebration.
We fail as a human we succeed in Christ.
The illustration shows the refiners fire burning off the loss and brokenness on the altar as God sees to transform us into light from darkness.
Four Scriptures that come to mind:
“I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.””Jeremiah 17:10 ESV
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV
“Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.””Matthew 16:16 ESV
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”Romans 1:16 ESV
The song Who You Say I Am. Hillsong
https://youtu.be/lKw6uqtGFfo
Lessisgreater 