Finding God's Blessings in Brokenness: How Pain Reveals His Deepest Love
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About this ebook
Broken. Blessed. How can those two words possibly go together? Considering just how shattering life’s blows can be, can we honestly believe God will bring good out of our most heartbreaking crises? “It’s difficult to discern the blessing in the midst of brokenness,” says Dr. Charles Stanley. “Certain circumstances in life hurt, at times so intensely that we think we will never heal.” The catalysts for brokenness all possess a wrenching pain and the power to forever alter our life. But they also possess one thing more: the potential for discovering a richness in living we otherwise never would know. Perhaps you’ve already experienced circumstances so shattering you may wonder today whether it’s even possible to pick up the pieces. And maybe you can’t. But God can. “After brokenness, we can experience God’s greatest blessings.”
In Finding God’s Blessings in Brokenness, Dr. Stanley will carry you through the hard times and show you how God’s glory is consistent throughout and always available. A gentle, encouraging way to explore God’s purpose and power as only experienced through the darkest times of life, this book will encourage you as you journey through the dry seasons.
Set amidst beautiful photography and a timeless design, Dr. Stanley’s words of encouragement and hope will guide you to growth and the joy of the Lord. Finding God’s Blessings in Brokenness is a thoughtful and inspiring gift to encourage anyone struggling through a dark season, as well as a thoughtful gift for anyone going through loss.
Charles F. Stanley
Dr. Charles F. Stanley was the founder of In Touch Ministries and pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church Atlanta, Georgia, where he served more than fifty years. He was also a New York Times bestselling author of more than seventy books. Until his death in 2023, Dr. Stanley’s mission was to get the gospel to “as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, as clearly as possible, as irresistibly as possible, through the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God.” This is a calling that In Touch Ministries continues to pursue by transmitting his teachings as widely and effectively as possible. Dr. Stanley’s messages can be heard daily on In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley broadcasts on television, radio, and satellite networks and stations around the world; on the internet at intouch.org and through In Touch+; and via the In Touch Messenger Lab. Excerpts from Dr. Stanley’s inspiring messages are also published in the award-winning In Touch devotional magazine.
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Finding God's Blessings in Brokenness - Charles F. Stanley
CHAPTER 1
BROKEN AND BLESSED?
Broken.
Blessed.
The two words don’t seem to go together.
We all know what it means to be broken, to be shattered, to feel as if our entire world has fallen apart or perhaps been blown apart. We all have times in our lives when we don’t want to raise our heads off the pillow and when we are certain the tears will never stop flowing. We feel a void that cannot be filled, a sorrow that cannot be comforted, a wound for which there seems no balm.
Nothing feels blessed about being broken. In fact, certain circumstances in life hurt so intensely that we think we will never heal. But blessing can come in the wake of our being broken.
And this blessing is richest when we not only let ourselves fully experience the brokenness but also wrestle with God over why he allowed us to be broken. When we cooperate with God as he does his refining and transformational work in us, his blessing will follow our brokenness.
RUNNING FROM OR FACING THE PAIN?
As we journey through this life—through the easy times and the painful times—God is fashioning us into people who are like his Son, Jesus. That means God is in the process of changing what we desire far more than he is in the process of giving us what we desire.
Part of being like Jesus is being willing to do whatever God desires: Not my will, but yours be done
(Luke 22:42).
Now, if I asked you, Do you really want God’s best for your life?
I feel confident that you would say, Yes, of course!
But if I asked you, Are you willing to let God do anything necessary to bring you to total surrender so that he is free to accomplish all that he wants to do for you and all he wants to make out of you?
I wonder what your response might be.
To have God’s very best, we must be willing to submit our all to him.
Our submission will mean our growth, and that growth is a process—one that includes setbacks, failures, hard lessons, and, yes, brokenness. Our growth includes not only spiritual growth but also the renewal of our minds and emotions.
Again and again, we find ourselves being broken so that our old nature might be chipped away or a rough spot in our character might be sanded smooth.
The process is painful and difficult.
Nevertheless, it is good.
Brokenness is not something to be shunned or avoided at all costs. Rather, it is something we are to face with faith. If we truly want to be all that God designed us to be, and therefore all that God desires for us to be, we must submit to him during times of brokenness and allow him to reveal to us why we are going through this hard season and what he wants us to learn.
A PERFECT VESSEL
God declared long ago, Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand
(Jeremiah 18:6).
God is at work in our lives, shaping and making us into the people he longs for us to be, so that we might bring glory to him and be of maximum use to him in the building of his kingdom.
images/img-13-1.jpgWhich would you rather be? A vessel of your own design, based on your finite mind and limited creativity, power, and wisdom; a vessel of limited use and fading value? Or a vessel of God’s design, based on his infinite wisdom, love, and power; a vessel of unlimited use and eternal value?
In choosing to be fashioned by God, we inevitably must choose to yield to brokenness and to allow God to remake us and renew us as he desires. And that will mean suffering, pain, hardship, and trials.
images/img-15-1.jpgimages/img-16-1.jpgCHAPTER 2
GOD WANTS THE BEST FOR US
Often when tragedies strike or hard times engulf us, we ask, Where’s God?
In asking this question, we make the assumption that God must not have known what was about to befall us or else, if he were powerful enough, he would have prevented it. Or we assume that God must not love us, because surely if he loved us, he would keep us from all