Broken for HIS Glory
It's too easy to live life striving for the perfect spouse, cute family, cozy home and debt free living. It's the picture of ourselves we'd all like to paint. We don't make it a habit to celebrate our weaknesses or flaunt our struggles. Yet tonight I am overwhelmed by the reality that perfection is a completely false picture of what God's Church looks like. I look at the things in my life that are challenging and everything in me wants to get rid of them. To just cut that section out of my life because it sure would be a lot easier and a lot more enjoyable. But as I sit here after an emotionally exhausting day and watch our three kiddos crawl over my husband with their running noses, crazy personalities, and mix-matched outfits, I am hit by the reality that we were never intended to find joy in the "perfection" of our earthly lives, but rather the brokenness.
Because it is in the brokenness that we see God.
It's in our brokenness that life stops being about us and our glory, but rather about God and HIS GLORY.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me." - 2 Corinthians 12:9
It's in the difficult seasons of this life that I see God changing my heart. It's been in the struggles where I've stopped relying on myself and seen more clearly the incredible strength of God. It's been in lonely times that I've opened up my Bible to find the comfort of Immanuel, God with us.
No, the truth is, we are a broken and messy bunch of people walking out difficult roads that, many times, leave us hurting and exhausted. We are to be the springs of living water to the needy, hurting and broken. Not because we've reached some state of perfection in our own lives. No, we are given the chance to be a spring of life to people because of the testimony of what God has done in our own weakness and failings.
Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. - Matthew 2:17
Heaven isn't going to be filled with a bunch of perfect, wonderful people with trendy outfits and saintly children. No, it will be filled with multitudes of broken, messed up people that Jesus redeemed in incredible ways. We will all gather around God's thrown and worship him in endless praise, because God prevailed in our lives despite our weaknesses.
All glory will be his and all joy will be ours.
If we are honest with ourselves. Our desire to hide the realities of our struggles behind clean facades all comes down to pride. When we are too prideful to be honest about our weaknesses, we close off opportunities to share the incredible things God has done in us through those times. We make life about us, rather than God. God says that he opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble (James 4:6). When we humble ourselves before God and before others, we become usable. When we are able to admit that we are imperfect, as is everyone else, we can see clearly how the playing field is level; that we need God just as much as the drug addict, the homeless person on the corner, or that person who drives us crazy.
Have you been spending more time striving for some ideal of "perfection" rather than letting God use your brokenness to be a witness for him? Will you join me in praying for strength to let go of your pride today so that God can be glorified through our weaknesses?