I knew there were secrets. I pressed gently, but she shied away. I prayed she would tell me when she was ready.The phone call finally came."Can you come get me?"When I arrived I found her battered and we drove to get medical help. On the way she spilled her secrets. Her mother was often beaten. She and her siblings were secondary targets. Leaving home had been her only escape. She had returned to visit, only to find her brother being abused. She stepped in and crushing blows followed. Her father finally stopped when she begged for her life.Shana came to live with us until she found a safer environment. In those two months we often stayed up late talking. Her greatest fear was that she would always feel broken.We prayed together that she could move beyond her father's actions.Paul, an apostle in the Bible, also knew what it was to be bruised and battered. He was imprisoned unfairly. Beaten.He once described himself as a chipped clay jar, saying, "We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed." Paul had discovered something valuable. There was a light inside that fractured jar healing the hurting places on the interior, then shining through the broken places so that the world could see.That treasure, nestled in the center of the clay, was Jesus.As time passed, Shana began to see herself through that light. She wasn't just a battered daughter; she was a woman with purpose. The wounds inflicted by her earthly father took time to heal, but as they did she was led to share her story.Her message, one she would shout from every mountaintop, is this:You are loved.You are made for more than this.God can and will heal the broken parts of your heart.Today Shana is a mom and a wife. The treasure inside of this woman illuminates through the once-broken places in a powerful way. She has adopted a son and fostered other children who came to her home with their own broken places, her hope to love them to wholeness. Children trust her because she understands their pain, but also because of the light and love they see inside of her.Maybe, you were bruised by an earthly parent's words or actions. Can I tell you something? Those words, those actions, they do not define you. You aren't limited by the chips and cracks in the outer shell.There are thousands, like Shana, like me, who were once chipped and broken. God blazed His light through those cracks, not just healing us, but allowing that light to lead others straight into His loving arms and these truths:God sees you.He loves you.He's reaching to make you whole again.Dear Lord, I can't change another person's actions or the past, but I can open my heart to the treasure of You. You are the light in the darkness. You are reaching for me today and I am reaching back. Thank You for a fresh beginning inside of me. In Jesus' Name, Amen.***
Broken Places online free
When we are in the presence of God, removed from distractions, we are able to hear him more clearly, and a secure environment has been established for the young and broken places in our hearts to surface. We ask God to surround us with his presence. We give ourselves back over to him and come under his authority, for as Paul warns, it is possible to lose connection with our Head, who is Christ (Colossians 2:19). We declare the authority of Jesus over our hearts, for he made our hearts (Psalm 33:15) and he has redeemed our hearts (Romans 2:29).
And then we ask Jesus to do for us the very thing he said he came to do: we ask him to heal this brokenness, to bind up our hearts. Sometimes he will ask us to take his hand in this shattered place, follow him into his heart and his presence within us. These places are often isolated from the life and the love of God in us; he draws them back into his presence and heals them through union with himself, in our hearts. Our part is to listen and follow where he is leading, and to welcome that part of our heart home. This is so important because many of us sent that part away. We welcome back the despised, forsaken part of us, just as Jesus embraces us.
This free two-week online course will help you to parent your teen in a counter-cultural way. You will walk through topics like appearance, performance, authority and respect, setting boundaries, and many more.
We need to realize where our true strength rests. Our moments of failure and the strength and fortitude of God equal our restoration. He can grow our spiritual strength from the broken places. Kristy 2ff7e9595c
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