Broken and Beautiful

by Fran Caffey Sandin

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—which is your spiritual worship.” Romans 12: 1 NIV

October’s birthstone is the opal. Light appears to emanate from the lovely gem when internal spacing of silica spheres, like broken chains, cause the diffraction of light to enhance various colors. In other words, the tiny open spaces inside the stone project a beautiful image.

This reminds me of broken things in the Bible that shine for God’s glory.

BROKEN JARS (Judges 7) The Lord directed Gideon to take 300 men to save the Israelites from the numerous Midianites. Gideon gave all the men trumpets and empty jars with torches inside them. When commanded, the men simultaneously blew their trumpets, smashed the jars, and with torches aflame, shouted, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” The Midianites became confused, turned on each other with their swords, killing their own, and many ran away crying as they fled. The light within the jars could not be seen until those jars were broken.

BROKEN ALABASTER JAR (Mark 14: 1-9) Jesus was in Bethany two days before the Passover when the chief priests were secretly plotting to arrest and kill Him. While Jesus was in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head. Some guests were complaining that she had done a wasteful thing, but Jesus said, “She has done a beautiful thing. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. What she has done will be told in memory of her.” The scent from the oil only could be smelled until after the jar was broken.

BROKEN BODY (I Corinthians 11: 24) On the night Jesus was betrayed, He took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is my body, which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of me.” Jesus gave himself so that all who believe in Him will be saved. His body was broken to redeem us from our sin.

BROKEN WILL (Psalm 51: 17) The Psalmist, David, reminds us that “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” He did not come to God for forgiveness until his spirit was broken, revealing the sin within his heart.

As a young wife and mother attending an evangelistic meeting, my heart was broken when I realized the wickedness of my sin. Although a church member for many years, I opened my spiritual eyes for the first time to see that my “righteousness” was like filthy rags in God’s sight. I had all of Jesus, but He did not have all of me.

I confessed my strong will and submitted my heart to Jesus. His sacrificial love on the cross caused me to give myself to him wholeheartedly. I visualized myself lying on an altar and said, “Jesus, I am yours–body, soul, and spirit. Take me and use me for Your glory.” I had a new hunger for the Bible and could not stop singing God’s praises. The hymns I learned in my youth had a new and deeper meaning. I felt renewed!

Through years of both happiness and heartache, failures and successes, the Holy Spirit has emboldened me with supernatural peace and joy. Even when I have been broken-hearted or discouraged, I remember…He makes all things beautiful in His time (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

This article is brought to you by the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association (AWSA).

About the author: Fran Sandin is a retired nurse, organist, mother, and grandmother living in Greenville, Texas. She and her husband, Jim, have traveled to many countries and states. Her latest book, Hope on the Way, Devotions to Go– contains 52 devotionals for those who love to combine faith and adventure. Visit her website to order with a click on the home page fransandin.com. Hope on the Way has been nominated by Joy and Company in Arlington, Texas, for the Henri Award (for outstanding Christian Literature) both in the Devotional and Christian Living sections.

Join the conversation: How important has brokenness been in your life?

The Hardest Thing to Surrender

by Jennifer Slattery @JenSlattery

If God were calling me to a temporary fast, I could do it. Give up sugar? Ice cream? Television and technology? Though it wouldn’t be easy, I’d manage. But this, what God is currently calling me to surrender, indefinitely, will take my most earnest prayers and every ounce of strength I possess. This thing cuts to the core of my hopes and dreams, triggers insecurities and fear, and ultimately, reveals where my heart truly lies.

So what is this thing that God calls me, persistently, to relinquish?

Control.

My agenda. My time and my to-do list. Whatever I’m striving for that keeps me from saying, at each moment, “Not my will, but Yours, Lord Jesus, be done.”

When I’m sitting with my Bible, reading of His love and care, meditating on all He’s done for me, surrender comes easily. Or perhaps I should say, easier. “Take everything, Lord. And help me to obey You. Help me to give up everything to follow after You.”

But then the day begins, and pricks of selfishness weaken my resolve and hinder my obedience. My prayers sound more like complaints and long-winded requests than commitments to my Savior.

This is my greatest, most fervent and frequent battle—the battle against self, saturated in pride and selfishness.

But Christ calls me to love—not with the conditional, temporary, convenient love our world offers, but the kind He demonstrated when He stripped Himself of all His heavenly glory, took on flesh, and died in my selfish, prideful place.

For, though He was God, He “did not considering equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Phil. 2:6-8).

This, Scripture says, is the same attitude I am to have.

Often, my prayers are centered on me—on what God wants me to do or not do, on how I wish things would turn out. And each time, God answers, but not in the way I expect. I’m looking ahead to countless external things. And though I’m certain He cares deeply about every one of my concerns, His focus often narrows on something of utmost importance, something that enables great ministry to occur and true love to flow, and that’s my heart.

If I want to be used by God and touch lives for eternity, to avoid the dangerous pitfalls of sin, my life must be touched first by the transforming power of God, the God who shows me how to love, to surrender, and to give all of myself no matter the cost.

Even if it means surrendering everything I hold dear.

In Romans 12:1, Paul urges us to “offer [our] bodies as living sacrifices.” In other words, to live sacrificially for Christ, not just today, or when it’s urgent or convenient, but always. To put God’s agenda above our own.

This is the call. The first step to greatness, and it begins with a quiet, yet desperate plea, “Change me, Lord. Help me. Do whatever you need to within me to make me pliable in Your hands, a cleansed and open vessel always and ready to do Your will and Your will only.”

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Galatians 2:20 NASB

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The Hardest Thing to Surrender – insight from author @JenSlattery on @AriseDailyDevo (Click to Tweet)

Jennifer Slattery is a multi-published writer, editor, and speaker who’s addressed women’s groups, church groups, Bible studies, and writers across the nation. She’s also a Crosswalk featured blogger and maintains a devotional blog found atJenniferSlatteryLivesOutLoud. She has a passion for helping women discover, embrace, and live out who they are in Christ. As the founder ofWholly Loved Ministries, she and her team partner with churches to facilitate events that help women rest in their true worth and live with maximum impact. (They just released their first Bible study, Becoming His Princess, which you can grab for free HERE.) When not writing, reading, or editing, Jennifer loves going on mall dates with her adult daughter and coffee dates with her hilariously fun husband.

Check out her latest release,Restoring Her Faith, published by Love Inspired. She left belief behind…Yet this family could change her mind. With two boys to raise, a fledgling contracting business to run and a family ranch to keep afloat, widower Drake Owens finds his hands aren’t just full, they’re overflowing. When Faith Nichols is hired to help him renovate the church, he’s drawn to the beautiful artist, but he can’t fall for a woman who isn’t a believer. Can love restore her faith and his heart?

Join the conversation: Let’s talk about this! How might pausing to reflect on all Christ did for us—His death and resurrection—empower you to surrender completely to Him? To daily surrender our heart to be cleaned and filled by Him? And why might this be of even greater importance than anything you or I might do for Him?