The lingering daylight leads us to the woods again, and I sink into a moss-covered log while the kids throw sticks into the water. Something about the scene feels alive in the most organic way. It’s like a gentle reminder of how to have hope when you’re feeling broken inside.
I’m thinking about life and fresh starts as the moisture of the sphagnum moss permeates my thin pants.
It seems the rotting log is absorbing my weight as I enhance the decomposition and press into the dirt. The moss is all around me now, sucking its life from the rotting log’s decomposing nutrients.
My mind shifts to Christ and his illustration of the wheat. There will be no harvest without a complete breaking of the kernel of wheat. Life comes from brokenness.
It’s the same with the moss. Because the tree gives of itself, the moss grows to become lush and abundant.
When You’re Feeling Broken Inside
As I bask in the silence of the forest, I’m reminded of several truths:
When life is hard and we feel broken, God is always at work in us.
The brokenness is important because we must first be broken before God can shape us to look more like his Son. As a wise friend once noted, we should never deprive ourselves of the gift of rock-bottom moments.
I think of the birth of our children and the breaking that comes with emerging into the cold world. A mother’s body is broken on behalf of her child.
I think of the cross. Jesus’ body was broken so that we might have eternal life. I think of every hard season in my life, dying to myself so that fruit might come.
If you’re feeling broken inside today, hold onto these truths about the work God wants to do in your heart and life.
1. When you’re feeling broken inside, God is preparing something beautiful for you.
God doesn’t directly cause every heartbreak we face in life. Things go wrong because we live in a broken world. However, God wants to use this brokenness for your good.
Your brokenness might be the backdrop for the miracle God wants to do in your life, too. Keep your heart soft toward him. He loves you. He allows this brokenness only so that he might form something beautiful.
Keep seeking his face. He is with you, tenderly loving you. He will never leave you, and he wants to use this for God.
God shapes our broken hearts to look more like Jesus as he pieces us back together.
2. When you’re feeling broken inside, God’s light shines through the cracks.
My life felt most broken when a long string of unwise decisions left me reeling with pain.
Though I’ve been healed and transformed, there are parts of my story that aren’t fun to relive. However, God uses these parts to shine his light through my own story and offer hope to those who are dealing with the same struggles I once faced.
His light shines through the cracks of my failures, and he receives the glory for his redemption. Life springs from death.
God wants his light to shine through your brokenness, too. Will you lean into him and let his light heal you? He is waiting.
3. God redeems those who know they are broken, not the ones who assume they are whole.
We are all broken.
Doing life on our own leads to striving, and striving leads to emptiness.
Only the broken realize they need to be put back together. Only the broken realize they can’t save themselves.
I spent many years living in my own strength, thinking my good works would earn my ticket into heaven. Only when I was broken inside did I realize that I had no power to redeem my life. Only the sacrifice of Christ can redeem my life.
If you realize that you are broken, you are ready for a fresh encounter with God today. What is he showing you?
4. Today’s pain prepares us for tomorrow’s challenges.
God has great plans for your life. However, he needs to prepare your heart before he leads you into these plans. Part of this process includes allowing pain to shape and mold you.
Without the difficult time you are facing now, you won’t be prepared for the greatness that awaits you.
I encourage you to do the hard work of grieving and walking through this broken season. Stay close to Jesus. Pour your heart out to him. Let him carry you. This challenging time will lead you to a spacious place of beauty. Keep pressing forward.
Regardless of where you’re encountering something that feels like death today, my prayer is that you’ll look to Christ. He knows about the sting of death, and he overcame it at the cross. Victory is coming. Until then, may we continue to lay our lives down so that he might live through us.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Stacey Pardoe
Featured Image by Pexels from Pixabay
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