The Valley Of Brokenness

God uses our moments of brokenness to speak to us.

God uses our times of brokenness to change us.

God uses our seasons of brokenness to mature us.

God uses our remembrance of brokenness to use us.

All For His Glory!

"The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:18

Very often in life we choose a path for ourselves that turns out to be more self-reliant than God-reliant. For Christians it usually doesn't start out that way, but soon we find ourselves at a place where we're asking, "God, where are you?"

I'm not speaking of those times in life that we find ourselves dealing with things that are totally beyond our control; those situations or circumstances we are powerless to contend with. I am speaking of those that come from our own selfish choices.

Often, because of God's grace, we are able to deal with the troubles of life, and mistakenly believe it is a result of our own wisdom or strength. We fail to recognize God's hand at work and begin to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to.

This independent spirit often raises it's head through an attitude of self-righteousness, self-centeredness, self-reliance or some other sinful ways. Many times this person looks godly on the outside, yet they are inwardly rebelling against God.*

Others simply get to a place where they no longer consider, nor care what God wants or thinks. They are in open rebellion, even though they know better. Either one of these positions is wrong and dangerous.

The Word warns us:

"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall."
I Corinthians 10:12
and

"When pride comes, then comes dishonor, but with the humble is wisdom." Proverbs 11:2

This self-reliant , self-righteous, self-centered attitude is simply a spirit of pride.

The world rewards and distinguishes people who display strength, natural charisma and a "get it done" mentality. But God works through people who recognize their weakness. *

Unless we come to the end of ourselves and learn to let God work in us and through us, we will never reach our full potential in Christ.* We will keep running into the same wall and the same obstacles will defeat us every time. Same bad choices lead to the same bad results.

"Brokenness is God's requirement for maximum usefulness." Through adversity, failure and disappointment, the Father molds us into people whom He can use.*

God's love for us is so great that He allows times of brokenness to occur in our lives to get our attention. Now, don't misunderstand me here, I didn't say He causes them to happen, but allows them to happen and it's usually due to our own sinfulness.

The Father uses adversity in our lives to break our self-will and transform us into useful vessels for His kingdom.**

Brokenness is the Lords way of dealing with our desire to act independently of Him. God wants us to bring every area of our lives into submission to His will, and He uses our trials to lead us to a point of total surrender.

God wants to break our self-will so we can be fully devoted to Jesus. This means three things:

1. Brokenness is not a penalty or punishment.

2. Brokenness is an act of God's mercy intended to bring us to repentance, and back to Him.

3. Brokenness is to conform us to His will and make us effective ministers to others.

Through adversity God targets the area of self-will in our lives. Those manifested in our habits, attitudes, even relationships, where we act independently of His purpose for our life. He wants to break the attitudes that do not honor Him.**

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." Psalm 51:17

Skillfully and lovingly God allows circumstances that will bring us enough discomfort, and sometimes even pain and fear, that cause us to realize our dependence on Him.

Submit to His guidance and deliberately rely upon His power and not your own.* Conform your will to His and be restored to the place He always intended you to be. Submit to Him so that He might reshape you into the servant He desires.***

God Bless and Press On

Larry

* denotes thoughts from "God's Purpose For Brokenness" by Charles Stanley

** denotes thoughts from "God's Pathway To Brokenness" by Charles Stanley

*** denotes thoughts from "Remodeled By Brokenness" by Charles Stanley

GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS

"I don't wanna go through the motions. I don't wanna go one more day, without Your all consuming passion inside of me. I don't wanna spend my whole life asking, 'what if I had given everything, instead of going through the motions'." -The Motions by Matthew West

I don't really know how I got there, but I did. There was a time I was super active in the church and for the Lord (notice I consider them, possibly, two separate things).

So what happened? Did I stop going to church? No. Did I stop reading my Bible? No. Did I stop loving the Lord? Definitely not. Then what happened? I have recently been thinking about that myself, asking this very question. How did I not notice what was happening?

It's like the story of "The Frog In The Kettle", have you heard that one? It goes something like this:
If you put a frog in a kettle of water he just swims around, loving his private little pond. Then, put it on a stove with a very low flame and the water begins to warm slowly. At this point the frog feels the water warming and thinks, "this feels rather nice". Feeling like he doesn't have to move around so much to warm his blood, he relaxes a bit more. A few paddles to get around is all that is needed. As time goes by, the water begins to get very warm but to the frog it's comfortable and he thinks to himself, "boy, this sure feels good, it's like having my own jacuzzi", and he completely lets his guard down and just decides to float around the kettle. (We all know where this is going, right?) As will always happen with a kettle of water left on a flame long enough, the water went from warm, to hot, to boil and before he knew it the frogs 'goose was cooked' so-to-speak or 'we're having frog legs for dinner!'

At any point the frog could have hopped out of the kettle, but he chose to stay in there because it felt comfortable. He didn't see the danger in it, but before he realized, it was too late.

Now what in the world does that have to do with you and me?

I think for me, something similar to that happened. Years ago, after being in ministry for a number of years, I felt that I was "too busy" or "doing too much". I had all these expectations, expectations that never came to fruition. I became frustrated, disappointed and upset and I stepped down from ministry. I decided to take a back seat in my church activities and ministry for the Lord. I still went to church, but that was all. Now I had more time for myself (which isn't a bad thing, once in a while). I didn't mean for it to be a long term situation, but I got comfortable, and it felt good to relax and not worry about anybody but myself and my family.

What was to be a temporary break turned into a three year hiatus. I began coaching my sons wrestling teams, and took up jogging, ran a few 5 k's, 10 k's and a half marathon. During this time, even with all these activities I felt unfulfilled. "There's got to be more to life than this", I thought. I finally decided to get back into ministry because I knew that's what I was supposed to be doing. Don't get me wrong, I never stopped sharing my faith. My personal walk with the Lord has been very rewarding for me, and I never hesitate to tell others about it when given the chance. I realize that I have been very blessed in my life, just looking back at where God has brought me from, I will never stop praising Him.

I have been teaching the Bible again, now for over ten years. Men's groups, married couples groups and youth groups, wherever God gives me the opportunity. This is my calling and what I enjoy doing, but I recently realized that there was still something missing. The Lord helped me discover what it was, the "all consuming passion" spoken about in the lyrics of Matthew West's song 'The Motions'. I was doing all the right things, good things... proclaiming the gospel, teaching His Word, ministering to the lost and hurting, conducting weddings and funerals, but often times I was just going through the motions. This is not to say I wasn't sincere in my ministry, I believe I was, but I lacked the power and conviction that only the Holy Spirit can give.

In my Jan. 4th blog, I described how God began to stir my spirit early last year. I had been feeling like something needed to change, and that something was me. What He wanted was the complete surrender and commitment of my life over to His will. I was doing all this stuff but didn't have the peace that comes with being in God's perfect will. I was spinning my wheels but going nowhere spiritually. This is what happens when you're operating under your own power instead of God's power. There was no passion!

Do you feel like you're just spinning your wheels through each day and not really going anywhere? Are you just going through the motions in your Christian walk? God desires for you to seek Him daily with all your heart or passionately. He wants to give you guidance and direction for every aspect of your life. He says to seek Him and you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart. That's one of His many promises. As His children, we have the privilege of the Holy Spirit's power in our lives, full access. What was missing in my life was the all consuming passion for God. It isn't in the doing! It is in the loving! Loving the Lord with all your heart is exactly that, He is to be our central focus, but we allow so many other things to creep in and steal it. Distractions can even be the ministry or serving at church; if it's done without love it's only service or doing, the passion is missing.

Don't wait until you find yourself in the position I was in. Ask the Lord to fill you with his Spirit and His passion for your calling. Why are you here? What were you created for? Ask Him for the answer to these questions and then do it unto the Lord.

"No regrets, not this time. I'm gonna let my heart defeat my mind, Let Your love make me whole. I think I'm finally feeling something 'Cause just okay is not enough. Help me fight through the nothingness of this life." -The Motions by Matthew West

God Bless and Press On
Larry

IN GOD WE TRUST

"In God We Trust"
Is this just a phrase on your money or is it a reality in your life?
Is it just something you say or is it evident in the way you live?

Sometimes it's easier said than done.
So easy to say but so hard to live out - or is it?

Trusting God - What does that mean?
Is it something you do (or say) only when things are going well for you? Is it what you do only for the "not so important" issues in your life? Do you give your burden to the Lord only to take it back again, because things don't seem to be going the way you want them to. Do you try to help God out, because He's not moving fast enough for you or He's not quite seeing the gravity of the situation?

Is this really trusting in God? We have a tendency of having to be in control of every situation, or at least feel like we are. We think we know what's best for ourselves and even those around us, our family and friends. However, this way of thinking makes it hard to 'let go and let God'.

Waiting on God is the hardest part of all. In our instant 'just add water' world we've lost the art of waiting. We no longer practice patience, we want it all and we want it now. We have microwavable everything these days and that's how we expect God to move. We go to fast food restaurants because we don't want to wait for a home cooked meal and if that's not fast enough there's always the 'drive thru' window, so you can eat on the way to your next whatever.

But God doesn't work that way. He is not bound by time or circumstance. He looks at your life as a whole from beginning to end and sees what's the absolute best for you, and if you let Him He will work that out on your behalf, 'In His Time'.

Trusting God means you believe that He knows what He's doing and that He is able, whatever the situation. It also means you are willing to give Him the time and opportunity to do it.

Sometimes He uses events, sometimes He uses circumstances, and sometimes He uses people to accomplish His will in our lives, and it's not always pleasant. Often we balk at His handiwork because we don't like the way it seems to be going. We take back control and thwart His perfect will for our lives. When this happens we usually don't get the results we thought we would get, or we may get exactly what we wanted and then wish we hadn't.

Have you ever been there?

God says to us in His Word; to trust in Him with all your heart, and do not act out from your own limited understanding, recognize Him in everything He's done and is doing for you and He will lead you down the correct path. Proverbs 3:5,6

Yield the decisions of your life to Him, your relationships, your career, your ministry, your all. Do not hold back any area of your life from the Lord.

Do not be arrogant, for the Lord knows best. Listen to those whom God has put in authority over you - the voice of experience, though you may not understand what God is doing sometimes, that's where the trust comes in.

It is human nature and our pride that causes us to think we can do anything under our own strength and wisdom. We need to make sure that we humbly trust in God, knowing that we can do nothing apart from Him.

"Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies." Psalm 40:4

"Commit your ways to the Lord, TRUST also in HIM, and He shall bring IT to pass." Psalm 37:5

So I encourage you today to let "In God We Trust" be more than just a mark on your money, more than just an empty phrase that you say because it's expected of you as a Christian, make it a reality in your life. Start with the little things, entrust them to the Lord and watch and see how faithful He is with them. Before you know it you will want to give Him everything because you realize He does far better at it than you ever will.

God Bless and Press On
Larry

The Life You've Always Wanted

"Have you found yourself dreaming about the good life? A nice house? A fast car? A big paycheck? Now that's living, right? Wrong!

Sadly these ideas of an abundant life fall far short of the rich life we were created to enjoy. The abundant life is one of access to untold divine resources - the provision God has made available to us."**

Do you work hard to get ahead? Do you believe that you deserve the very best that this life has to offer? Then I would ask, is that good enough for you? If it is, you're selling yourself short. The riches of this life are limited and temporary and those things that you've worked so hard to attain could be gone in an instant. God, on the other hand, has an abundant life just waiting for you.

"The Webster's dictionary defines the word abundant as meaning more than enough, amply sufficient, plentiful, bountiful. Jesus said that His purpose is to give us a rich and satisfying life. So the abundant life is one that is richly supplied with what we need, a life that is available because Jesus came to provide it."**

Let's talk about what the abundant life is not. It isn't necessarily a life of wealth, comfort, leisure, or freedom from pain. It's not the 'good life' we see on TV.

But it is a life of "access to untold divine resources", the provision God has made for us to live whole, healthy, and hopeful lives. We have everything we need to live the abundant life, the life we were created by God to enjoy. The secret to the abundant life is a close relationship with God as we follow the truths of scripture.**

How do you live the abundant life? Physical Life itself requires certain elements to sustain it and provide for growth -- nourishment, air and water. If any of these ingredients is in short supply, the living organism will shrivel, weaken, and even die.

Sometimes even those of us who follow Christ get caught up in chasing the rainbow, seeking the "Pot of Gold". Christ desires that we learn to be content in our circumstances, I didn't say satisfied, I said content. We should always be striving to better ourselves, but more, our person than our position.

The Bible is the nourishment you need to live the abundant life. Jesus is the Bread of Life and Living Water necessary for living as a Christian, and He is made known to you through the Bible.

Learn to trust God for what you need and obey His Word and He promises to "open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows." Malachi 3:10

God Bless and Press On

Larry

**These thoughts taken from the Abundant Life New Testament Index by Tyndale Publishing