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Oct 10, 2024 18:00pm

What Now?: Brokenness

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The following comes from the devotional book “What Now?” by Ashley Akers. To learn more, go to www.whatnowdevo.com.

Brokenness

Do you ever feel like your spirit is broken? Your world is falling apart, things are not going your way and hope is distant. When your season of brokenness peaks, you’ll reach a point where you must choose between two different paths. One option is to continue traveling the same broken road and the other is to turn and be restored. The path you take is your choice!

I was broken for many years and didn’t know how to get past it. I relied on myself and even on others to fix my problems, but any “solution” was only temporary. Let’s be honest. We live in a broken society. Sadly, in all this brokenness we do little more than put a band-aid over problems, resorting to medications, alcohol, drugs, relationships, etc. to help us. The truth is these temporary fixes simply do not get to the root of the problem. The root of the problem is sin…which leads to brokenness…and when brokenness is handled incorrectly, it leads to yet more sin…which leads to even more brokenness. Get it? This is a cycle that will lead to destruction if it is not stopped.

The Bible tells a story of brokenness I would like to share. There was a woman who had a bleeding disorder for 12 years. Mark 5:25-29 relates her encounter with Jesus:

And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even His garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

I imagine this woman’s spirit was broken. In her culture, she would have felt very isolated. Her medical condition was uncertain, and under Jewish law, the bleeding meant she had to keep her distance from others. So not only was she financially broke (having spent all available money on doctors), she likely had few friends and was not even accessible to her husband or children, if she had any. If she was married, this disorder would have been sufficient grounds for divorce (at least among the less conservative Jews). If she was not married, it would have prevented her from getting married. This desperate woman had no one and nowhere else to turn. But, one day she decided to go to Jesus for healing, and healing is exactly what she received.

This story of brokenness is no different than ours. This woman reached out to Jesus as the only one who could help her when she had nothing left. We serve the same Jesus today, and He can restore our brokenness if we give it to Him. Remember, turning to Him is your choice.

Reflection Questions

1. Have you turned to medications, alcohol, other people or even your own strength to overcome your brokenness? If so, did it fix it?

2. Have you been in the cycle of brokenness, either in the past or right now?

3. What would it look like for you to turn to Jesus for healing?