Life Can Be Wonderful? 1 – Even When I’m Spiritually Broken
In Matthew chapter 5 there is a riff Jesus does about people who are happy. In fancy places it is referred to as the beatitudes or blessings. There are eight things Jesus says we are blessed to be or have in our lives. After all that is what we all want: a happy and blessed life. It is our desire for our kids, friends and relatives, that we have a blessed happy life.
Crazy thing with Jesus’ list is that these things are not wonderful. They are painful and sometimes downright discouraging. So the question truly becomes how come something so awful become wonderful. Well we are going to spend a few weeks and talk about different things that Jesus listed and how we find our way to the wonderful in the midst of such pain and sorrow.
Jesus begins his list with the heart of the matter. We are spiritually broken and when we begin there we can find hope. He says in verse 3: Those people who know they have great spiritual needs are happy, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. Matthew 5:3 (NCV) We begin with the realization that we are not perfect spiritually, but actually broken. We are in serious need of a way to be spiritually “fixed” with God. So where do we find the blessing in brokenness.
It is a strange thing that admitting we are spiritually broken is the path to happiness according to God. David writes in Psalm 32:1 – 4: “Happy is the person whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs are pardoned. Happy is the person whom the LORD does not consider guilty and in whom there is nothing false. When I kept things to myself, I felt weak deep inside me. I moaned all day long. Day and night you punished me. My strength was gone as in the summer heat.” When we admit our need and receive forgiveness from God happiness flows into our hearts. The weight of guilt can turn our hearts heavy and dark. When we take this guilt and brokenness and give it to God then we begin to heal and truly understand what it is to live.
People often say that the beginning of getting right is admitting there is a problem. To just look in the mirror and say “I’m broken.” But, many times we wonder what is it that God wants from us? What is he truly looking for so that I can be forgiven and close to him? Psalm 51:17 says, “The sacrifice God wants is a broken spirit. God, you will not reject a heart that is broken and sorry for sin.” In times where it is hard to know what will make us right with God it is good to begin at our own hearts. To know that God is longing for us to realize we are broken. That when we admit our need He can come close and help us.
A wonderful life begins with admitting we need to start with our brokenness. Happiness will follow as we grow closer to God in our brokenness. The weight of not being right with life and God will only bring sorrow and a dark weight upon our souls. So the road to happiness sometimes leads through a dark valley at times. Joy can come from knowing the Lord does not reject us for being broken, instead, He loves us even more when we admit who we truly are in our souls.