Broken Today?

When I think about repentance I also think about brokenness. They really fit alongside each other quite nicely. Corporate repentance happens when we are corporately broken. It is a dynamic not often experienced today among the body of believers. I have never actually seen this happen. Because this is rarely experienced collectively, I am afraid to say that the body of believers is missing out on the great treasures and riches that are found in Messiah Jesus. This leaves me in a perpetual state of grief. It is a grief right now that I believe the Lord wishes to let me rest in, to let me feel the weight of, to allow me the burden to experience. Brothers in sisters out there, I pray that our hearts might be united. We need to recapture again the idea of corporate brokenness and corporate repentance.

Sometimes I think it is as if we are so in the dark, that we can't even see the mirror any longer, much less spend the necessary sober introspection time required for us to look in it, thus allowing God the time to speak piercing messages to our heart.

We can be quick with our prayers. Quick prayers are dangerous prayers. When invoking God we invoke the One with the power to give and take away. We toy with fire when we try to pawn off wearing a mask before the Holy One. I have never once prayed a haphazard prayer that amounted to anything. The truth is, prayer without reflection, weight, and contemplation mean very little to us, and dare I say, mean very little to God. A haphazard prayer which is purely surface level, only has the option of being shallow. Depth is not an option, because it merely comes from the lips and not from the heart.

We can suffer the unwelcomed tendency to be absent in our prayers. Our lips move, but our hearts can remain unmoved. We can pray prayers that do not even resonate in our hearts anymore. We can become prayer drones, and thus sever ourselves with the reality of the darkness of our heart. When darkness looms long enough we can chuck the idea of God's presence into distant oblivion. We can be so quick in our prayers that we can shoot out the traditional opening line, "God we thank you for your presence," while at the same time, wishing we were very absent from the Lord's presence. The mouth can thank God for His presence, while the heart craves to flee God's presence.

Let us return now to the idea of brokenness. It's good if the last two paragraphs have led you to personal brokenness already. They just took me about thirty minutes to write because the message stirs me so powerfully. Individual brokenness produces individual repentance. This phenomenon is far more commonplace than corporate brokenness, but is still not common enough. Unfortunately, I am ashamed to say, it hasn't found a habitual home in this author's life.

Why do we need more of brokenness? Because we need more growth and more closeness in fellowship with our Lord. When we are broken and beside ourselves we are more susceptible to be transformed in mighty ways by God's voice. In weakness and brokenness we are susceptible to the Lord's breaking into our lives.

Brokenness occurs when God breaks us and breaks in. When God's voice intervenes and interrupts our shallow existence we become shattered, we become broken. And I think that's the point. The Lord enters in the brokenness. Be broken, be transformed into God's glorious image.