Broken Vessels

Broken Vessels - By Grant Phillips - http://raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips340.html

 

We could pick any spot on this earthly globe and find many who are suffering from brokenness. It plays no favorites. Whether you're rich or poor, educated or illiterate, male or female, child or adult, many can identify with the few verses I have selected in the Psalms.

 

"I am forgotten as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery." (Psalms 31:12)

 

"I am exhausted and completely crushed. My groans come from an anguished heart." (Psalms 38:8)

 

"Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none." (Psalms 69:20)

 

Some try to find a way out through drugs, some through alcohol, others through a job, still others through sex, or maybe even through popularity. Each has their own demon to fight against, but they can't win.

 

Little do we know sometimes what lurks behind a smile. Do the eyes dance with real peace and happiness or is sadness hidden deep within? Robin Williams comes to mind. He made millions laugh, but hid a deep sadness that came from being broken within.

 

Many people have reached the "end of their rope," and just don't see any worth to what they see in the mirror. They have let others down, even those they love, and despise what they have become. There seems to be no hope.

 

Other people can break us. Our own failures most certainly can bring us down to the pit of life. So what do we do? Know this. You may feel like the biggest failure on earth. You may feel unloved, unwanted, unappreciated and like you're a hopeless cause, but there is a God in Heaven who loves you. This God, the one and only true God can make you whole and put a spring to your step.

 

Instead of continuing to be a broken vessel, be brokenhearted for the Lord God. By that we mean, lay out your heart before God and call on His Son Christ Jesus to give you a real meaning for living. Ask Him to forgive you and save you. He will give you eternal life and a reason to live as a new child of God. Listen to the Psalmist in the following verses.

 

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." (Psalms 34:18)

 

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." (Psalms 51:17)

 

"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." (Psalms 147:3)

 

"He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. (Psalms 40:2)

 

If you're looking for happiness, peace, real worth, there is nothing like the fellowship you can have with Him. He takes the most despicable of us and cleans us up, puts a new robe upon us and breathes real joy into our life. Our spirit is made new in Him, and through Him we have everything to live for in this life and the promise of spending eternity with Him when we leave this world.

 

Again, notice what David says in this passage from Psalms:

 

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And forget none of His benefits;

Who pardons all your iniquities,

Who heals all your diseases;

Who redeems your life from the pit,

Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;

Who satisfies your years with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

As far as the east is from the west,

So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Just as a father has compassion on his children,

So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

For He Himself knows our frame;

He is mindful that we are but dust. (Psalms 103:1-5, 12-14)

 

The world tells us to think highly of ourselves. Everything is about us. The world revolves around us. But God calls that self-righteousness and it is good for nothing. "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6) Instead, "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." (Romans 12:3)

 

The world tells us to put ourselves first, but until we put Him first, we will never have the peace and joy He desires for us. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)

 

Only Jesus can take away the demons that are destroying our lives. In Him there is life, but there is only death in the crutches we use that keep us broken.

 

Ask Him to come into your heart and save you. He will. No child of God is a broken vessel. We are a child of the King, and we are important to Him, so important, He gave Himself a sacrifice so that we could have eternal life.

 

Grant Phillips