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“Brokenness requires that we feel the despair that comes with being completely without hope and purpose. We need to feel like the dirt that God made us to be in order for us to come to a place where brokenness can have the power in our soul it needs to have. But hear me loud and clear: this place of hopelessness, despair and confusion isn’t where God wants us to stay.”
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 164.
Now that’s a bummer of a statement I just quoted. Have you ever been in that place of being completely without hope in the things of this world? I can tell you from experience, that’s not a place you ever want to be. Sadly, it is a place where we all will go, sometimes more than once in this life. Thank God that it is His plan to bring us out of that place in ways that will change us forever.
It is when we come close to that line of total despair and return that life can turn in a radically different direction. Ask any person who has stared death in the face and won what that moment is like. Life is just different. The things around them look brighter; foods take on a taste that is more intense. Life just feels different. At least that’s the way life is for a while after their return from the brink.
Brokenness that comes from getting close to the edge without going over is something that is a benefit in the lives of the victor. I don’t for a minute think that God has to break us like a wild horse in order to allow us to live the life of a victor. However, being broken is an event that opens our eyes to the possibility of believing in something more than ourselves in ways that makes us a powerful force to be reckoned with.
If we can come back from that place of being without hope and purpose in ways that allow us to consider a different hope and direction, brokenness will have played an important role in our lives. Hope and purpose in ourselves is a strategy that just can’t work in world changing ways for the vast majority of us. I can’t think of a single human being who has made history that hasn’t had to be taken to the brink before their life changing ways impacted this world. Same goes for you and for me.
I’m in no way saying that we should relish the times of breaking in our lives. Nor can we take steps to hasten when and how long that breaking process takes. Our job is to put one foot in front of the other and look for how this life works to make it possible for us to find hope and purpose in something greater than ourselves.
Take a look at today’s Bible reading. It focuses on how we are to go about living in those times where hope seems so far from being within our grasp.
Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.” But you, LORD, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the LORD, and he answers me from his holy mountain. I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side. Psalm 3:2-6 (NIV)
When hope is an issue, our biggest battle is with the words of this world. People will try to crush your faith in God asking why He hasn't rescued you. As time goes on it is so easy to believe that our faith is useless as so many will be saying all around us.
Hope comes as we hang on to the promises of God. He is our shield. He lifts our heads high. He answers from on high. All these promises makes it possible for us to lay our head down and sleep in the midst of the storm. We can expect God to show up in ways that will confound this crazy world. Problem is that we can't put our expectation as to what His showing up will look like in our circumstances.
It is when we put our expectations on God that victim thinking quickly takes control. God's ways are not our ways so what we believe is good and right might not line up with what God sees as necessary. That's a really hard concept to accept but what choice do we have. God is god - we are not! The sooner we get this reality in our lives the easier it will be to have the kind of faith that produces hope when the tides turn against us.
I pray that today is a day filled with hope in so many different ways for you. I know from experience that that will only happen as you take your day on one moment at a time. Don't get too far ahead of yourself or hope will look so faded and distant. Faith isn't an hour by hour thing when we are in challenging times. It is a second by second thing. Hang on to the hope that God has for you today. Don't let the world dictate what that hope has to look like and know that God's plan is for you in ways that is beyond all you could ever think, dream or even ask for in this life.
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