Is there hope that God will use broken people for his glory? Matthew West believes God uses broken people. Do you? Do you believe God will use you and your brokenness for His glory?
What does it mean to bring God glory? When God uses your brokenness, other people will see God through your life story and you get to give God the credit for your life change. Would I have ever been able to find freedom from sexual abuse without God? No. Would I have found freedom from sexual addiction? No. This freedom is from God. My story of freedom only exists because of God’s work in my life. When I share my brokenness, when I share my story with others, God gets the glory. God gets the credit. He is the one that did the good work in me.
If we only believe that God uses perfect people, (which don’t exist by the way) perfect people get the credit for being perfect. A perfect person does the right thing every time. A perfect person never makes mistakes. They get the credit for their perfection, not God. God gets no glory in someone trying to be perfect. God gets the glory when we believe and fully understand and fully express that we are broken people who need a savior.
“But if it’s true You use broken things
Then here I am Lord, I am all Yours”Matthew West
Scripture provides countless examples of flawed, broken people whom God uses for his Kingdom work.
Noah was a drunk.
Abraham was old.
Jacob was a liar.
Joseph was abused.
Moses had a stuttering problem.
Gideon was afraid.
Rahab was a prostitute.
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young.
David was an adulterer and a murderer.
Elijah was suicidal.
Jonah ran from God.
Job went bankrupt.
Peter denied Christ.
Just like all the examples mentioned above, God uses broken people.
It’s never the perfect; it’s always the ones with the scars that You use
It’s the rebels and the prodigals; it’s the humble and the weak
The misfit heroes You chose
Tell me there’s hope for sinners like meMatthew West
Right now, you may not understand how God will use you and your story for His glory. But unlike our tiny brains that focus on the now, God has an eternal perspective. God knows how each event in our lives will be used to impact eternity.
Isaiah 55:8-11: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
We have to understand that God is SO much bigger than our tiny little brains.
Our thoughts are smaller than His thoughts. Our plans are smaller than His plans. Think of eternity as a line. It is a line that goes on and on and on forever. We are just one dot on that line, so we only see our dot and a little before and after. But God, the Creator of the line, sees the whole line! He knows how one dot will impact the next.
Do not be ashamed of your brokenness.
“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.” 2 Tim 1: 8.
Suffering is a form of brokenness. Allow God to use your brokenness to spread the gospel.
Still doubt that God will use you? Check out this blog post: WILL GOD USE MY STORY IN A POWERFUL WAY?
Embrace your brokenness, and join me in loudly and unabashedly singing Matthew West’s new hit song, “Broken Things.”
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Debra Pedrow
at (7 years ago)Joy, thank you for being so honest. I believe you inspire your readers.
Taylor
at (7 years ago)Joy, thank you for sharing your writing with all of us. It’s wonderful to read from someone with such a great perspective and a loving, God-focused heart.