By Kate Ledbetter
Jeremiah 18:1-4
Learning in life not to give people the freedom to fix you. The more people know your struggles, the more mission-minded some seem to set to work making sure you become their project to restore. When you don't "fix" easily, the expectations go up. You feel like you're failing them, and you begin to perceive that you're a burden to their success. Bearing one another's burdens is about getting under the load not trying to remove it. The Lord is not breaking you so my confidence can be bolstered in fixing you. He is breaking you for Himself, for His glory.
Jeremiah 18:4, “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”
Pray for true encouragers in your broken times.
Encouragement comes only from those willing to let you be broken and allow you the luxury of not meeting unattainable expectations. Encouragement comes from a heart that whispers prayers for you in the night watches. Encouragement comes from those willing to love your brokenness. Those that will see the workmanship God is doing in you for His honor and glory. Encouragement comes not from pity but from praise for all the Lord is doing in your life before you ever see the outcome.
May we all become like Paul and say: Philippians 4:11-12, “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.“
When we are broken and suffering or watching others who are and we desperately want to help fix what we see broken, may we remind ourselves to be content in knowing that the Lord is the Potter. We can rest in His hands and allow others to do the same without our interference. Sometimes we are marred in His hands on purpose simply so He can make us again. Learn to be beautifully broken.
The broken are used to help the hurting like nothing else can.
Job 2:7-8, “So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.”
Your brokenness may never be whole again, but it may be the very thing the Lord uses to give relief to someone hurting in ways you could only imagine. What I've learned from brokenness is that it is NEVER about me. It is ALL about the Lord being able to use me either as broken or as another vessel entirely. I want to be a useful vessel. He may want me to be a broken potsherd. When I'm determined to serve His purpose, I will stop caring about what I look like in the end. He may want to fashion me into a lovely vessel or just something used to give someone else just a bit of relief as they scrape their mess onto my life. I can learn how to truly encourage them.
May we be willing, no matter how He sees fit to use us, to rest in the Potter's hand, beautifully broken until He sees fit to make us again.
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