Blessings of Brokenness
Nancy McGuirk
Bible Commentator
"Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds because you know that
the testing of your faith develops perseverance...so that you may be mature and
complete not lacking anything."(James 1: 2, 3)
The typical view of the christian life is that it means being delivered from
all adversity. But it actually means being delivered "in" adversity which is
something quite different. This is why James says to consider it pure joy
"when", you go through trials, not "if".
But how can there be joy? When a child of God goes through trials, the truth is
he has nothing to fear. Jesus says "In the world, you will have tribulation,
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." This joy is therefore
translated as a deep-seated confidence in the One in whom all things are
possible.
We as Christians worry and are often broken during trials because we feel alone
and think that we should not be experiencing any difficulties at all. We are
after all good people...people of God! But God does not give us overcoming
life, he gives us life that (through Him), we overcome.
In fact it is the love of God that has often allowed the very difficulty we
face...for He knows the opportunity that is ours. There is a blessing in the
midst of our brokenness. He knows that to be like his Son, we must suffer and
be broken in this world. For to be like Him does not come naturally to any of
us. To be like His Son is to totally trust God under all circumstances of life.
Only with a deeper dependency on our heavenly father do we even begin to
understand what it means to trust Him.
Sometimes God strips us of anything that has undeserved importance in our life.
For often times we don’t realize that God is all we need until He is all we
have. And it's usually the desperate circumstances we encounter that cause us
to cling tighter to our Father and look into His face as we hold His hand
through that moment. Hopefully after enough desperate moments, we begin to
depend less on ourselves and more on the One who is always dependable.
The trials of life are what build our very character and mature us. They bring
on the blessings of change and the experience of the new self that we want so
desperately to become. The new self is not self sufficient, he is
God-sufficient. If there are no trials, there will be no dependency, and if
there is no dependency, there is no need for Him. And the less we need Him, the
less we will grow into the beautiful person He has designed us to be. This is
why He wants us to "present ourselves as a living sacrifice" ...holding back
nothing to keep us from trusting Him.
God cannot give us joy and liberty unless we are willing to accept the trials
of life...and once we face them, we will immediately receive His grace to
overcome. Remember His "grace is sufficient" and through it, He will begin to
water our mustard seed of faith and help it to grow until it has slowly moved
out all other loyalties in our life. ....until we learn to look to Him for
nourishment, and to Him alone.
If you completely give of yourself physically you become exhausted, but if you
give of yourself spiritually, you will get more of God’s power, and more faith
in an all loving, ever-present God.
Jesus said "give up yourself and you will find your real self". Our temptation
is to face the trials of life in our own strength. But a trusting child of God
can "consider it pure joy" even when seemingly completely broken by adversities
because victory is absurdly impossible to everyone.... except God.