I hate when my weaknesses, fears, insecurities, and character defects are exposed. It’s painful. It’s ugly. It’s embarrassing. But they are always there, all that brokenness, lurking in the shadows, wreaking havoc on our lives, whether they have been revealed to us or not.
Sometimes that brokenness comes from our own sinful desires and wicked heart. Sometimes it comes from sinful habits or addictions we have gotten ourselves into. Sometimes that brokenness is brought on by the pain and suffering caused by the sin of others against us. Sometimes it comes from the loss of people in our lives we love so deeply. Sometimes it could be caused by years of conditioning in an unhealthy relationship.
Whatever the brokenness, no matter how it came about, the answer is the same. The answer is Jesus Christ and His gospel. The answer is His grace, love, mercy, forgiveness, acceptance, power only found in trusting Him. The paths that we have to travel to the gospel, and the paths that we travel in the gospel, in this new life with Christ may be different. None of our journeys looks exactly the same. But the answer is always the gospel! And the power and strength to walk the paths that we have to walk always comes from the grace of Christ through His Word and in the Holy Spirit, and through the support of the people He has placed in our lives.
I have begged and begged for the Lord to remove my brokenness and weaknesses. But He does not remove them. I feel that I always receive the same answer that Paul received when he asked the Lord to remove the thorn from his flesh. “No. But my grace is sufficient.” They are with us always. They make us who we are. We walk around with those wounds. But, He DOES HEAL the brokenness. He does break off the shackles and chains so that the brokenness no longer has power over us or keeps us in fear and bondage. But now they are scars. They are no longer constant open wounds causing such intense pain. He does give us grace to heal and deal with our brokenness; to learn and move on to be the people He has called us to be.
It is this healing He uses to glorify Himself. It is this healing and His power in us that He uses to point people to Himself for the same power and the same healing. Our job is not to hide the scars, but to point people to the Healer.
So, yes there is still a part of me that hates when that brokenness in me is exposed. But there is another part of me that painfully rejoices in the hope of the healing, deliverance, and peace the Lord will bring. I know My pain will not be wasted. Christ will complete his work in me.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ESV
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.