From Shattered to Restored

Isaiah 61:1-3 tells us that Jesus came to bind up the brokenhearted, provide recovery of sight to the blind, freedom for captives and release for prisoners.

These very people file into the churches that dot the landscape across our country and around our world. They walk in with a pasted on smile, a fear of being exposed mingled with a fear of what it is that makes them so broken.

When they look in the mirror they do not see themselves reflected as Christ's image on this earth, but instead see slivers of a being they do not even recognize as themselves. It reminds me of what the book of  James talks about:

"he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."~James 1:8 (NKJV)

"For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his [own] natural face in a mirror; For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like. "~ James 1:23-24 (AMP)

Every day there are people who call my line at work looking for help.  They are deeply wounded people with remarkable strength, but when they look into their shattered mirror they don't see a love letter from God - they see the hatred of this world marked out in scars on their souls.

Broken people, shattered and blinded by the cruelties of life, a fallen existence and the consequences of evil perpetrated by the hands of men. They are trying to get better, but feel doomed to a life of turmoil, regret, fear and torment. They call and they ask, "Can anyone offer me hope?"

"Can God help me?"

Some find healing after years of both professional counseling and ministry within the church, but many feel that they will never be completely free of the darkness of their past.  Even after receiving a measure of healing their reflection is still shattered. Their identity stolen by abuse and pain.

Abuse and pain our society and world often minimize or deny exist.

Where do people who suffer horrible abuse go for help?

I pray that God would provide a place where the shattered and maimed souls of this world could come and receive intensive care without depleting their financial resources. A place where Jesus is found faithful to Heal, Restore, Deliver, Set Free as well as save. Where they go from being shattered to restored completely back to the original identity that God created them to live out of accepting finally that their past does not determine their future and the cruelty of others does not show their personal value and beauty before God.

That they would be as Paul writes:

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."~Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV)

And finally, one day they look in the mirror and see not the shattered image of a used up life, but instead the glorious image of Christ reflected in His Bride.



"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."~2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV)

Would you join me as I pray for an answer for those shattered lives that so desperately long to find themselves whole, healed and set free?

Written on My Heart: Psalm 34-The Lord Delivered Me

"I sought the Lord, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles." ~Psalms 34:4-6 (NKJV)

When I think of the Lord delivering me from all my fears, I think of what it took for me to overcome them.

OUCH.

I look back over the time when I began to earnestly seek the Lord until now and think how He has used every experience, every opportunity, every moment of my life as a catalyst to draw me into Himself and set me from from myself at the same time.

Free to be who I am in Him would sum it up nicely.

I guess what has struck me fresh as I read these three verses of Psalm 34 and chew on them is what happened after the Lord delivers from all fear.

"They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles."

How often do we refrain from looking to the Lord because we are afraid of what He will show us about ourselves. I know there have been times in my life, some not so very long ago, when I would not take something I knew He wanted to deal with to Him because I was afraid of confronting that thing and allowing Him to deal with it. How often do we refuse to allow God to heal, deliver, set free or correct in our lives because we a AFRAID of what the change will look like?

I see it all the time in Pastoral Care Ministry. People call in and come in for prayer and for assistance. They want the pain to stop, but they don't necessarily deal with why the pain exists in the first place.

For some there is an element of the unknown that keeps them paralyzed. I have carried both the title of victim and survivor in my lifetime. I was a victim of domestic violence, rape and assault. I survived the death of my oldest child. The problem with these titles is not that they don't ring true.  The problem is that these titles define my existences on the basis of my experience rather than on my position in Christ. If I indeed believe I am a victim then I run the risk not only of fulfilling that role, but having the expectation that I somehow will be a victim again. The same with survivors.

Something glorious happens when I turn my face to the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3 says that when we turn our eyes to the Lord, the veil is removed and we see Him as one looking a mirror with unveiled face. His reflection in my says I am a victor, more than a conqueror, but instead a co-hear and child of the King. Victor is a title that defines a person based on their position after the battle. Warrior defines my role in the battle, but Victor defines my position after the battle. Think of it.


I am more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. Do I believe that is true?  Or, am I a victim and a survivor who has been merely saved with little or no victory at all.

When they turn their faces to the Lord, their face become radiant, as the glory of the Lord shines upon them and when they cry out to Him, He hears them and delivers them from all their troubles.  Who is the they in this passage?

Those whose praise of God is continually on their lips, who declare and exalt Him and His glories in their life.  Those whose souls boast fully in the Lord because He has delivered them from all their fears.

Lord, Let me never forget the benefits of being your child and turning my face toward you.  Let Your glory shine Lord, all the days of my life. In Jesus' name, Amen.