Friday, December 18, 2015

Life breaks us, but God makes us stronger

Matthew 11:28 - 30 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light."

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

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

Psalm 31:12 I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind; I am a broken vessel.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. 

Have you ever looked back at your life and realized it God who kept you alive? When I think about it and remember the times that I should been dead I know now it was not coincidence, or by chance or by luck. It was all God! What He has ordained to live, cannot die. In the book of John, there were many times when the people wanted to arrest, stone or kill Jesus but it was not His time. As long as God has a plan for your life, you cannot die. When God says YES, nobody can say no. 

There times when I've had knives put to my side and threatened to be killed right on the spot. I've been shot at. I grew up in a rough neighborhood full of gangs, drugs and violence. I lived in literal war zones. I use to be in the US Army and I was stationed in South Korea on two occasions. The Korean War never officially ended because there was no peace treaty singed, only an armistice. Both times I was there the North wanted to start something. The troops who are there are only a speed bump to slow down the North while reinforcements come. So my life expectancy was short. I was also deployed to Baghdad, Iraq. Both times I was put in some situations that threatened my life. But God had a plan for me. I consumed things that could've and should've killed me. I put myself in situations and surroundings that could've been the death of me. I use to live recklessly and putting myself in danger because I didn't want to live anymore. I had enough of what this world had to offer. But God!

But God had a plan and purpose for my life and He wasn't done with me yet. He said that He could use a guy like me in His ranks. The world had chewed me up and spit me out but God saw potential in me. I don't live for this world anymore because I now live for God.  I am far from being perfected and I still do have some rough spots. I am a mess, but I am His mess now. I kid you not, I hit rock bottom back in 2013. I had to be broken down in order to be built up a new. I gave my life to Christ and my life was radically transformed. I am not the same person I use to be. I can not take any credit for change that has happened because in the past I had tried to change and I failed miserably. I tried counseling, going cold turkey, more counseling, medications, recreational drugs, hobbies, etc. Nothing else worked only Jesus worked. If it weren't true I would not write about it and try to tell the world about it. 

My prayer is that somebody who reads this would give their broken life to Jesus and He will put it all together and also give somebody a new purpose. Come with all your baggage, come dirty, and come with all your brokenness. Jesus will remove the heavy yoke and place His light yoke on you and carry it with you. Jesus will clean you up from all your filthy sins and get down in the deep parts of you that need cleaning. Jesus will put you back together into something beautiful and useful for His purpose. Just like a kintsukuroi pottery. It is the art of repairing a broken pot and repairing with gold or sliver lacquer and understanding it is more beautiful because it has been broken. I will use myself as an example. Before the Lord could use me, He had to break me. It was not pleasant at the time and I did not understand what was going on. I look back on it now and I am glad that it happened because I am better for it. I had to be stripped of everything and I had to land on the Rock so that I could be broken. Once broken, the Lord began to put me back together and mend me. He mended my relationship with Him by forgiving my sins, mended my soul, my mind, my spirit, my life, and my marriage, etc. I can go on. In the eyes of God, I am much more beautiful now that I have been broken and mended by Him. He can do the same for you if you allow Him. He is just a prayer away. 



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