A friend shared some very sad news with me the other morning. As I read what she sent, I could feel my heart breaking into pieces. Another Christian marriage, broken. I do not know details, nor do I know if the brokenness is irreparable. I just know what I told my friend, “What a reminder for us - marriages, Christian marriages especially, are vulnerable and Satan wants them.”
As I had my quiet time that morning, I wept for this couple. I prayed for miraculous healing and breakthrough with the prayer for healing for each of them … no matter what. Some marriages do not make it. Some are broken beyond repair. Infidelity, abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, anger issues often cause marriages to crumble and for protection, one spouse has no choice but to file for divorce.
When you read Broken Strength, you will know more of my own personal story. But through it, I talk about the Japanese word, “Kintsukuroi” and what it means to me. Kintsukuroi, as I have written about before, is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with a lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver or platinum. You can see the repairs, yet the Japanese still find the pieces to be beautiful. Their belief is the Kintsukuroi repair is part of the history of the object, rather than something to cover.
“The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” - Psalm 51:17 (NLT)
I have been broken before. Broken, terribly. If I had been a piece of pottery, I’m not even sure if a gallery would have me as a clearance piece, I was so shattered.
But God.
God, through His Holy Spirit, repaired my broken pieces. But He prepares us not with a lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver or platinum. He heals us with His grace, mercy and love. And like a formerly broken piece of pottery, you can often still see the repair work being done. But the repair is part of our history, as well, and God still finds us to be beautiful.
The enemy knows about our broken pieces. He tries desperately to weasel his way into those cracks and crevices and plant seeds of doubt, shame, anger, resentment.
The enemy is filled with poison, where God’s Holy Spirit is filled with possibilities. I choose the Holy Spirit.
If you are married, pray for your marriage, daily. Pray for protection. Pray for an awareness to guard your heart, your mind and your marriage. And if you are not married, those same prayers apply, and I urge you to continue to pray those prayers for your heart and mind. Papa will never reject our broken and repentant hearts. He will repair the broken pieces and still call us His beautiful ones.