Are You Still Broken?
As I have picked up different books that are designed to help people with spiritual matters, I am amazed that so many of them encourage folks to spend time laying out their faults and inadequacies. Yes, when we start down the noble road of our Christian walk, we may want to unload the baggage that held us in fear, but let’s not go back and pick them up again after we are on the glory road with Christ.
Are you still broken? Remember the old man is dead and our life is all about the new man. Sure, we are limited in ourselves, but we are not limited with Christ within and having the gift of holy spirit resident in us. With the new birth, we are on a trajectory to the more abundant life in Christ! We are seated in the heavenlies (Ephesians 2:6). We are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
There are a number of worldly successful programs that appeal to people, but their emphasis is on how broken you are, not who you are so much as a redeemed person. Two programs come to mind: Alcoholic Anonymous and the US Marine Corps.
AA while helping many has its limitations compared to the solutions the Heavenly Father has. The members are always confessing that they are still alcoholics, even being dry for years. How about declaring, “I was an alcoholic, but now I am free in Christ!”
The US Marine Corps, of which I am a member (Once a Marine always a Marine), take new recruits and tear them down in the beginning and then mold them into dedicated fighting machines.
Thankfully God does not have to beat us down or ask for us to confess our shortcomings. We confess the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in His resurrection to become filled with all the spectacular spiritual realities of holy spirit. He wants us to put off the old man inherited by Adam, and put on this new man in Christ, so that we can walk in victory. Philippians nails the reality of this:
Philippians 3:13&14: Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let’s remember, we are not still broken. Yes, maybe we were, but God has rescued us and put us in His family forever. “If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God” (1 John 3:20,21).
Let’s stay excited about what God has called us to be and to do in the One Body of Christ. You are His awesome child now and forever!
Agape, Bob