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Have you ever gone to the store and bought a bag of ice, taken it back home, opened it and you are unable to use the ice cubes inside of the bag because they had all formed one giant chunk? It is not until you break up the giant block of ice that the ice is of any use to you. When hurt comes into our lives we tend to freeze up just like that giant bag of ice. We have the potential to be useful, but until we are willing to be broken, we are just frozen. To us, broken things are despised as worthless, but God can take what has been broken and remake it into something better, something that He can use for His glory. In Jeremiah 18 the prophet was told by the Lord to go look at the potter in his workshop. The Potter had a vessel that was not perfect so he broke it, put it back on his wheel and remade it. The Lord begins to explain to Jeremiah that we are the clay on the Potter's wheel. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! Jeremiah 18:5-6 NKJV Sometimes in our lives we feel as though we are supposed to have it "all together". We don't want others to see the hurt. We need to appear strong. We feel as though the best thing for us to do is close off from the hurt. So we freeze up. We think that we are being strong because we have been solid and unmovable like a glacier. But actually all we are doing is not releasing the hurt we're holding in. We keep ourselves from being able to be moved. Unfortunately, freezing your emotions actually freezes the Lord out as well. We keep Him from being able to fix it for us. We have to be willingly to be like the clay on a Potter's wheel and let the Lord remake us. Brokenness is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of surrenderence to the Lord's wheel so that he can remove the blemishes of our pain. 8 But now, O Lord , You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand. Isaiah 64:8 NKJV Yes, it is an uncomfortable feeling to release the control of our pain. But we have to go through the process of God taking our pieces and making them whole again. Only when we confess that we are broken can our Father God heal us. It's in that brokenness to our Father that we realize our need. It's ok that we are broken, it's alright that we are hurt, it's true that we have pain, because it happens and God is prepared for it. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit. Psalms 34:18 NKJV He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds. Psalms 147:3 NKJV We have to look to the Lord with our broken pieces in hand and surrender it to the Lord. We can't freeze out and hold it all in and be rock solid thinking that we are stronger because we didn't break. Often times, we are unable to heal because we’re so busy with other things – our lives, our families, our work, our own problems, unhappiness, and pain. But the best place to break is at the feet of Jesus. Because just as Psalms 23 states "He restores my soul..." And our deepest need is to be made whole by God our Father. Heal me, O Lord , and I shall be healed; Save me, and I shall be saved... Jeremiah 17:14 NKJV The solution can never come from our own efforts or striving, but comes only from Him. Only when we recognize our need for God can our restoration and healing begin. He calls to us. He longs for us to come to Him so He can heal us. We have to be broken before the Lord so he can restore us. Our Father wants to remove the scars of the pain that we have sustained. You may have a memory of what happened, but we do not need to hold on to the hurt. Don't Freeze God out!
Love,
Jamilynn S. Morris