Fresh water from the Well of Brokenness
How do you do this? By accepting change. Opening your self to experience life instead of protecting yourself and giving in to your fear and negative inner thoughts.
Whew! Thank you Lord for guiding me with words of encouragement. Life is continually moving and changing. So, I simply have to face my diabetes illness. Take my insulin medicines. Pray a lot and ask my Maker to take care of me.
Yes! Like a bridge over troubled waters (Simon and Garfunkel), my family and friends console, comfort and connects with me to help meet my dark hours.
Yes! Lord guide and always empower me!
“I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to You among the nations. For Your loving kindness is great to the heavens and Your truth to the clouds. Be exalted above the heavens, O God. Let Your glory be above the earth.” Psalm 57:911( NASB)
DAVID is running away from the mad king. He is now, together with 400 folks, hiding in the cave of Adullam. It is a dark place, an unpleasant environment with unpredictable dangers. In this cave, David wrote his best Psalms. From Psalm 57 to 142, these were all written at the height of David’s brokenness! No cave experience, no Psalms written. It is ironic that while sunk in the depths of despair, David sung his sweetest songs to the Lord.
Psalm 57 is actually a jubilant song. Charles Spurgeon aptly described it this way, “The hunted one takes a long, deep breath while in prayer (in the cave of brokenness), and when he is finally inspired, he breaths out his soul in jubilant song” Psalm 34:18 says “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” In the cave of brokenness, David drank in the freshness of nearness to God. Indeed, this makes no sense to any of us unless it is our turn to be broken. The process of being broken is painful and embarrassing, yet, the product is intimacy with God. Nobody learns brokenness through a series of sermons, it is unmistakably learned amidst a series of storms. Inside the dark cave, David found freedom in expressing his plea to God. One thing broken people learn is how to beg; how to request; how to desperately ask for help. Brokenness also allows broken people to discover the beauty of God’s promises over man’s promises. By faith on the One who made the promise, broken folks slowly stand again, sing again, and live again.
In the process of being broken, God is purging and purifying our praises to Him. They are no longer religious talks, church stuff, they become real. In brokenness, we really worship God, we really pray, we really accept others who are broken. In brokenness, there is a new and fresh consciousness of the presence of God. His presence keeps us believing, praying, trusting and relating.
Brokenness, for David, is a spiritually designed process from God that led him to a deep spiritual discovery. What did David discover? It is not really a mind-boggling theology. He discovered a pride-breaking reality that God hears the cry of the helpless.
And David, the helpless one, now learns to relate with many others who are helpless.
In the well of brokenness, David drank in the fresh water of surrender, enjoyed the flow of simplicity and the power of being powerless. Added to these, his focus was on God, his faith was in God, and his friendship with God was of utmost importance. In brokenness, David came out with sharpened discernment. He now makes godly choices; live a life that shows godly confidence; he now walks with people who exert godly influence upon him.
Brokenness is not a pleasant process. To be broken by God is painful and embarrassing stripping us naked from our false confidence. At the end of it all, we are so capable of breaking ourselves resulting in our destruction. If Brokenness is not an option, then it is better to be broken by God and be whole rather than to be broken by self beyond repai r.
Thanks for reading, I always write from my hear t .