Beauty for Ashes : Dealing With Brokenness

Beauty For Ashes: Dealing With Brokenness

It was such a great privilege and blessing for me to be able to attend the seminar Beauty For Ashes, a seminar on dealing with brokenness facilitated by the IATRIA Transformation Ministry led by Rev. Bishop Ed Espinosa. This hub is an excerpt from that seminar. I am so blessed by this seminar that I am so much eager to impart the great nuggets of truths I learned from it with you in this hub. The theme of the seminar was based on Isaiah 61 : 1-3;

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn , and provide for those who grieve in Zion - to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of spirit of despair . They will be called oaks of righteousness , a planting of the Lord for the display of splendor.”

Isaiah 61:1-3

Everyone has experienced brokenness at some level . These wounds rob us of real joy, peace and rest. Brokenness is a condition of the soul due to unresolved inner conflicts caused by struggles, pain and devastating experiences in life. Brokenness is a silent or loud desperation of an individual helplessly sinking into disintegration.

Causes of Brokenness

In dealing with our fears, struggles pains and memories, there is a need to identify what causes them. It is not helpful to ignore them, pretend they don’t exist or forget them by putting them behind.

Circumstances beyond our control

These are occurrences in our lives that we have no control such as death of a loved one, accident, disaster or calamities. During my teenyears at the age of fourteen, I experienced brokenness due to the tragic loss of my sister in a shipwreck tragedy. During those times, my family experienced depression that we don’t know exactly where to find comfort. That was the first time my heart was terribly broken.

Mistakes of others

Some people have been broken because there are certain people in their lives who made mistakes. There are young people who had been broken because of their parent’s mistakes. There are wives who had been broken because of their husband’s mistakes,

Wrong choices

Wrong choices of lifetime partner, career, course in college, business partners, friends and allies may lead to brokenness. A popular singer had been tremendously broken by her wrong choice of lifetime partner. Her marriage led her to brokenness that made her resort to drugs. Wrong choice of course in college may jeopardize a person’s future that will lead him to brokenness.

Inherited burdens

Inherited poverty may cause brokenness. Inherited responsibilities may cause brokenness. The eldest daughter in the family who inherited the burden of looking after her siblings due to the untimely death of her parents may experience brokenness.

Deliberate sins

Deliberate sins such as fornication, adultery may cause brokenness. Because of being engrossed in fornication , a young lady may conceive a child out of wedlock and this condition will bring much dishonor to her and that lady will be broken because of too much shame.

Sins we have believed

When parents spoke lies to their children telling them that they are stupid when they are not, this will bring much insecurities to their kids that will lead them to brokenness.

Presumption on things and people

Presumption on people may lead to brokenness. A girl had experienced much brokenness because she presumed that her guy friend will propose marriage to her , but instead married another girl. When one is assuming that he will be promoted to be the next manager but instead he was bypassed, it will bring much brokenness to that person.

Practical Steps To Take To Better your Situation

Watch out for storm warnings

Before brokenness hurt you there are warnings. In John 13:31-38, Peter never listened to storm warnings . Christ gave him warnings , but he insisted that he will not fall. We have to listen to people giving us warning. Unmarried couples in a relationship should heed the warning of their elders that they should never engage in knecking and petting.

Ponder the possibility

It simply means that we must put in our minds that it is possible that we be broken. Never assume that you are always strong against temptation. Never tell yourself that you will never fall.

Don’t be caught off guard

If I am tempted to be impatient I will guard my heart and my tonque. We have to guard ourselves. We have to constantly guard our hearts against all lustful desires and bitterness.

Search underneath

Have a regular heart or soul examination. We have to search our hearts regularly. There may be tons of bitterness already or lustful desires or selfish ambitions. We have to eliminate our hearts from all these things.

Learn much in defeat

God allows us to experience brokenness so that we can appreciate God’s work of making us whole. The Lord wants to teach us to become more considerate, more forgiving, more merciful and more loving to people. The Lord wants us to learn from the defeats we have experienced. We need not remain defeated.

Avoid dropping out

Strengthen yourself with the Word of God and the fellowship of the brethren instead of dropping out. If you commit suicide, if you resort to drunkenness or to drugs,or to live in hatred, divorce or annulment of your marriage that is dropping out.

Allow God to do His finest work

God wants to do His work in you no matter how much have you been broken. God is in the process of refining you into a finest gold. God is so wise He will allow you to go into brokenness so in the end you will come out as a shining gold.

Ending Your Brokenness

Come to the source of wholeness

We tend to go to wrong places, wrong people, we ended up more broken. If we really want to be whole again we have to come to Christ. The Lord is our balm of Gilead as it is written in Jeremiah 8:22. The Lord said in Matthew 11:28; “ Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

Go to the place of your brokenness

Deal with the one who shatters your life. What breaks you, that is the place. Tell it to God. Set aside bitterness and replace it with love.

Ask the Lord to heal you of your brokenness

God accepts a broken spirit. God has the power to heal brokenness.

Surrender the cause of your brokenness and let God do the healing

Overcome whatever expression of brokenness with scripture-based actions.

Overcome with scriptural actions. Instead of fighting back exercise patience. Instead of harboring bitterness and resentments, always choose to love and forgive.

The ministry of the Lord JesusChrist is to bind the wounded, to heal you, to make you whole again. Fragments of our broken lives need not end up in a rubble and it is not enough to simply manage to survive. Drinking and other vices are just temporal solutions. Our broken pieces can be gathered up and put together again into an object of beauty and usefulness. Jesus is able to heal brokenness. God deals with our personal brokenness as a potter would mould the clay in a recreated grace. There is no brokenness that God cannot heal or gather up again to make whole again. God is the potter, He will mold you as clay. In His recreative grace He will make your life into beauty.