Discussion/Devotional thought of the day:

Hear the words of one whose life was broken….

I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? Romans 7:24 (MSG)

As I’ve been writing this week on brokenness – passages keep popping into my mind, proof that our generation isn’t the first broken.  And proof that even as those who believe and trust in Jesus, we struggle with sin.  Yesterday I wrote that the first step isn’t confession our brokenness, it is realizing that we are broken.  And for many of us, that realization continues into our new life.  We, like Paul, grasp how life is supposed to be – we are supposed to be whole, saintly people, dedicated to God and to doing his work.   Aren’t we all supposed to have our lives change as Christians.  Why can’t i bring Jesus to people like Billy Graham, or pray and have devotions like St Francis, or serve the needy like Mother Theresa? Or be a preacher and writer like Luther?  Why do I still have to deal with sin, my sin, as it assaults my thoughts, is found in my words, and gulp – is seen in my deeds, (or my lack of deeds)

I think we would be surprised to find out how human they were, that they too struggled with temptation and sin, that like the APOSTLE Paul – they had days where they cried out for Christ to return, to rescue them from this life.  Think about Revelation’s description of saints,

^12:11 They have triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word to which they bore witness, because even in the face of death they did not cling to life. Revelation 12:11 (NJB)

Been there somedays….not wanting to cling to life, not because of the people around me, for them I would gladly stick around, but because of my own brokenness, because of the fact that I know I don’t live the way I would desire to, knowing His love.  When I forget and cry out as Paul did – who will rescue me from this body of death…..

Until a friend reminds me I have been rescued.  Till I stand at an altar, and am given the Bread of Life, and drink of the Cup of Salvation. Till I hear those incredible words “your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit…AMEN!)  The words that Paul rights after His cry of brokeness – in those words we find the answer

^7:25 The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. ^8:1 With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. ² A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
Romans 7:25 -8:2 (MSG)

There is our answer !

Our brokenness has been dealt with!

We have been freed from it, healed of it.

We still will struggle – with our own brokenness, even more perhaps as we see people living broken lives, unaware that their cry has been heard, that the Lord has had mercy, that He has come… and will free them….and we not only get the joy of letting them know this – when they do hear – we get to see the weight lifted off of them… we get to share in their realizing His promise…

For we are a church, a people that find healing in Christ, while healing others heal….