The goal for any Christian is to be growing in Christ, but very few look look forward to being broken. Yet somehow the two seem to go hand in hand.
For today’s Shining Like Stars series, I’m welcoming April Nelson from Healing In Heart to share her experience from being broken with grace, even as she is growing in Christ.
Growing in Christ through Brokenness
by April Nelson, HealingInHeart.com
I do not know much about planting, caring for a garden or harvesting. However, one thing I do know is the ground needs to be prepared before the planting and harvesting can take place.
My husband and my sister decided to break up a small patch of our back yard this year to plant some cherry tomatoes.
The phrase “to be broken with grace” kept entering my mind as I was thinking about how the ground in my backyard had to be broken up to be prepared in order for the seeds to take root and become what they were intended to be.
Very much like that hard ground had to be broken up to be better prepared and before any process of a harvest can abound, the same applies to our spiritual ground.
There are various reasons the cultivating or the breaking up of our spiritual ground is needed.
Sometimes it can be because we have allowed a certain sin to stick around, to take root. Roots are stubborn and need to be removed before the ground is ready for planting. Our spiritual ground can become hard through a heart full of bitterness or jealousy. There can be many more reasons.
Maybe you are able to go through the check list of things you are not doing wrong;
I have forgiven anyone that needs it, check.
I feel that I have no root of bitterness, check.
I haven’t fallen prey to any sin stronghold to take root in my life, check.
However, what about when we simply have grown comfortable in our comfort zones? How about when we are no longer growing in Christ?
We may not be taking steps in a negative direction but we find ourselves not going forward either. We are staying put because we are content with how life is and we just want it to stay simple.
Friend, a life of surrender is not about staying in our comfort zones with no movement. God is always calling us to service. We are called to a life of surrendered steps. A life of surrender is about giving up our rights for what God wants. A life of surrender will move us in the direction of being more like Jesus.
Jesus did not live a life of comfort. He was always doing something to please His Heavenly Father. Jesus lived a life of surrender unto death. We are called to surrender by dying daily to our flesh.
Jesus washed the disciple’s feet, showing a life of humility, love and serving others. We are called to also be living a life of humility and be willing to be made low so that someone else can be lifted up. That means we are called to be encouragers. We are called to love.
We are called for purpose and sometimes to get us to that purpose, God simply needs to gently break up the ground of our hearts. He needs to cultivate a spirit of brokenness so that we can experience His grace that abounds.
Tweet ThisThere was a time when I needed the breaking up of my spiritual ground. My heart had grown hard through choices that I had made. God allowed the breaking of my heart because my heart needed to feel helpless so that I could see that He was what I had needed all along.
I was broken and wounded, I knew that it was through His mercy and grace that I would come to the healing that I had been searching for. You see, I was broken with grace.
Are you there now? Circumstances in life breaking your heart in two, leaving you feeling like your life is a pile of broken things. You feel it makes no sense at all. Run to Jesus! It is in Him that you will find peace. It is in Him that you will find healing.
Being broken with grace may start out very painful but the thing I want to leave you with is encouragement.
In the breaking up of my ground came an abundance of so many good things. I was restored to a new place, a closer place with the Lord. He is always wanting us to draw closer to Him.
Many times it is through our wounds and our scars that we will be transformed.
Isaiah 61:3 reveals how he gives beauty for ashes, joy for sadness and exchanges our heavy heart for praise!! Our King Jesus allows the breaking up of life at times because He knows our ground needs to be cultivated, broken up to be prepared for our calling and our purpose to God’s plan.
There may be suffering involved with this process but God in all His goodness will not leave you there. If you feel the breaking of your ground…the breaking of your heart…hold tightly to hope and lean more into Him.
In allowing Him to strengthen and heal your heart, you will come to see your spiritual ground being prepared. For what is planted during this time will come forth and bloom for the world to see the glory of what God does when we are broken with grace.
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” – 1 Peter 5:10 ESV
Come, let us return to the Lord;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. – Hosea 6:1
How about you?
Are you growing in Christ by being broken? Has God being stirring up the soil around your heart? Let’s encourage each other in the comments.
Meet April
April is a wife, mom to 5 children and Nana to 3 granddaughters. She works as a Hope Coach, helping wounded hearts in crisis through a faith based crisis chat line. It was through this work she came to see how many wounded hearts are searching for hope. She knew because of her past experiences that God was calling her to further share how there is hope and healing to be found through a close relationship with Jesus. We can be encouraged through the truth in His word to “Heal In Heart.” Connect with April on her website as well as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
This post is part of the Shining Like Stars series. Read all of them here.
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April – Yes, my most significant growth has come when I have been broken. However, I keep asking God, isn’t there another way? I guess not.
Marva thank you for sharing April with us today and posting on Grace & Truth for all of our readers.
Blessings to you both, Maree
We hsve growing pains with physical growth, so why does the pain of spiritual growth catch us so off guard?
As much as I don’t like it, these verses add a great deal of hope to suffering. Thank you for sharing this with us!
#faith’n’friends
This is rich, like good dark dirt..being broken for Him – nothing compares as far as our growth goes. Lovely post.
Great encouragement here, April. Looking back on my life, it’s plain to see that my faith grew always through suffering in some form. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about our tendency to do everything to ensure our own comfort. But we don’t grow without discomfort! Thanks for sharing, April.
Thank you for sharing this encouragement, April. It’s so true, often the greatest growth happens when we’ve been broken, but in Jesus, we can find peace.
Thank you, April, for sharing your wisdom here.
Oh, may we yield to the merciful breaking that comes with growth, so that we won’t become stagnant and hardened, like fallow ground, unfruitful.
Such a beautiful post! I have learned that he Lord uses the times of breaking to bring us to a place of abiding and then ultimately for the purpose of fruit-bearing and bringing Him glory. It is so hard when we are in the midst of being broken, but it is amazing to look back and see how the Lord has worked! Thanks so much for sharing this!
Aren’t we all a little broken? We just need to be good ground.
Amen Rebecca! We are all a little broken and God Most definitely will use us through those broken places!
I particularly resonate with this: “We are called to a life of surrendered steps.” It reminds me that it’s not one huge step, but a series of daily ones, often small, one after the other.
That’s so true Lisa, it’s about the daily, the continual. It’s when we stop moving that God creates an atmosphere to get us going again! Thanks for reading!
It is never easy when God digs. Sometimes we actually appreciate being a little stagnant. Growth always pulls things out of us that we do not want to experience or see at times, but it is so worth it in the end.
Oh, Brittany, I agree. Sometimes I think, ‘a little stagnation never hurt anyone’. Not! God knows exactly what we need to grow and become more like His son. Staying in the same place seldom gets us there.
Thanks for stopping by and chiming in!