Dealing With Rejection (Rejection Rewards!)

You know the scene. It is in the middle of the day. The children are out to play on the playground. They choose team members to play the game. One by one everyone is picked until it comes down to the last person. By now this lonely person really doesn’t want to play because they were the last to be chosen. The reject! The one no one wants.

Rejection! We’ve all experienced it. Not getting that promotion we were anticipating. Or not getting the job you interviewed for and someone you know did. We all want to be valued and accepted. Being valued is a natural human desire. When we don’t feel valued we tend to draw back and isolate ourselves. Maybe you have been rejected from a friend, or relative. How about wanting to go out with somebody and they said, “No!”

rejection is: “Dismiss as inadequate, inappropriate, or not to one’s taste, or to satisfy one’s taste. To refuse to accept, consider, submit to, take for some purpose, or use. To refuse to hear, receive, or admit.”

I don’t know about you, but I have experienced many times the definition of rejection. When it happens, it’s easy to think you did something wrong or that there is something wrong with you. Most of the time this is not the case. But, the enemy will try and make us feel bad about ourselves, or bad about our life after we have been rejected.

Rejection hurts. I am here today to let you know there is hope after rejection. We can allow the “sting” of being rejected to torment and alienate us, or we can be determined to rise above those who rejected us and keep on keeping on with our life.

Jesus knew first hand what it felt like to be rejected. Many times the religious rulers of His day rejected what He had to say, or even rejected Who He was. They were unwilling and refused to accept His teachings because they liked being in control of the people. They didn’t think He was the “Messiah.” Jesus’ taught about mercy and grace and the religious rulers were legalistic.

How many times Jesus endured scrutiny from the Pharisees and Sadducees. They even tried to “trip” Jesus up with His answers, but again, Jesus knew what was in their hearts.

I wish I could say I acted or reacted in a godly manner after experiencing rejection in my own personal life. There were times I did, and times I didn’t. But I have learned several things about rejection, that I pray, will help you to deal with it and overcome any negative affects it brings.

We can learn so much on how to deal with rejection by watching Jesus’ reaction.

Dealing With Rejection

1.  Keep walking boldly!

Luke 6:28 – 30 NKJV

“So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath (rage), and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.”

Jesus knew what was in the religious rulers heart’s. He spoke the truth with authority. They took Jesus out of the synagogue and out of the city to a high hill and wanted to push him over the edge. Jesus, turns, and walks boldly through the crowd and continues on with His ministry.

People will reject out of fear. It shows their insecurities within themselves when they reject you.

The religious leaders rejected Jesus because they were afraid. Afraid of losing their position. Afraid that the people will turn from their leadership and follow truth, which Jesus represented, and oozed out with. People already thronged Jesus. Fear makes people do crazy rejectful, brutal things.

Truth is power. The religious rulers saw truth in Jesus and they had to destroy Him.

2.  Shake the dust off your feet!

Read Mark 6:1 – 13

Mark 6:11 NKJV

“And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.”

There have been times when I have had to shake the dust off my feet when I was rejected, and some of those places were in a Christian church, with Christian people.

There will be people who will be offended by the truth you represent. They will harden their hearts towards you and kick you out of their group or organization. I’ve heard it said, “Go where you are celebrated!” There is some truth to that because it is extremely hard to stay somewhere where the people are constantly rejecting you. Jesus said to shake the dust off of your sandals and to move on. Do what you can there, but move on and keep your head held high! People are not rejecting you, but rejecting God. To a degree, it is Christian persecution to have fellow Christians kick you out of their “club.” This is what happened to Jesus many times.

3.  Don’t get offended!

Luke 17:1 (HCSB)

“Offenses will certainly come, but woe to the one they come through!”

We have to get elephant skin when it comes to speaking the truth and not being received. People hurt people. As long as you are around people, you will have the chance to get offended.

Scriptures tell us “Offenses will come” (Luke 17:1). We will always be tempted to be offended. Our expectations weren’t met, or someone hurt us or rejected us. You might have said things like, “How can they treat me like this?” or “I was a part of them for years and look how they treat me!” They will call you names, slander you, and want you gone. They will ignore your true worth in Christ and reject you because of the truth you represent. This happened to Jesus. He was known as the “Carpenter’s Son.”

Mark 6:3 NKJV

“Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him.

They rejected Jesus because they only saw Him as the Carpenter’s Son. They put Jesus in a box in their minds. They knew His family. They saw Him grow up and become a man. God was raising Him up, but they refused to accept Who He was called to be.

When you have a heart for God you will be rejected. You might even be rejected by those close to you. Even if you are not a minister, you will experience rejection. But let me tell you; Once you meet Christ you are a minister! Your life is a sermon that everyone reads.

Jesus was rejected and even mocked while He was hanging on the cross. As if what they did to him was not enough. After being beaten and whipped, after the crown of thorns were pushed on His head and imbedded into his brow, after his hands and feet were nailed to the cross, after He was mutilated beyond recognition, they mocked Him.

Mark 15:29 – 32 (NKJV)

“And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!” Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him.”

They were sarcastically mocking Christ while He was hanging on the cross. Who does that? Who kicks people when they are “already down?” Those who are full of themselves and think they are right. Those who want their way and arrogantly assume they deserve it. That’s who! They thought they were sitting in the driver seat. Little did they know God used them to bring forth Salvation to the world.

I don’t think anyone of us have experienced all that Jesus experienced, in our entire lifetime, what he experienced in just a few hours. Still, when we experience rejection it sting hangs with us.

Like I said earlier, there is hope. Not only can you be healed from any sting of rejection, but there are other promises you can stand on when dealing with rejection.

Rejection rewards:

1.  You will be vindicated!

Psalm 35:24 NKJV

“Vindicate me, O LORD my God, according to Your righteousness; And let them not rejoice over me.”

God hears our cry and sees all. God knows what is in a man’s heart. He knows what is in your heart. He knows everyone’s motives. If there is injustice, God will repay. He is a just God.

There are times we are rejected for walking justly. Again, God will vindicate you.

Psalm 26:1 NKJV

“Vindicate me, O LORD, For I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the LORD; I shall not slip.”

Psalm 43:1 NKJV

“Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!”

If there is injustice, it will only last for a season and God will deliver you from the deceitful injustice.

Jesus was vindicated. He didn’t stay on the cross or in the tomb. He was resurrected. No man, no matter how much power they think they had, couldn’t keep Jesus from raising from the dead.

2.  You will be promoted.

Psalm 23:5a NKJV

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”

People will be surprised at your promotion. It will go against what they thought of you. They rejected you because they didn’t agree with who they thought you were. Their opinion of you doesn’t determine who you are. They will see you resurrected. They will see you doing things and walking in ways they never imagined. What are you going to do when this happens? Rejoice! It will happen!

2.  You will be transformed.

Walking out of rejection and leaning on your beloved, you will be more like Him. We lean on Jesus and connect to His rejection immediately when we are rejected and treated unfairly.

To know Christ in His resurrection and suffering, we have to experience a death. When we die to ourselves and our flesh, we allow Christ to increase in us. It really is a win – win situation. We win when we lose. We lose our flesh and we gain a changed perspective. Treated unfairly is exactly what Christ went through.

All this said, God is keeping score and He will pay you back with heavenly blessings for the scourge you have received from your enemies. The rejection we have received from others simply open our hearts to receive more of the anointing into our lives. We will be eating a feast of His power and presence while our enemies look on, unable to understand why we have been chosen to receive such blessing. Little did they know it was their reproach against us that made us a target for God’s blessing. It was their betrayal that brought God’s best blessings to our doorstep!

Walk as Jesus walked and hold your head up high knowing you are God’s child and He has great plans for you.

Maybe you have experienced rejection and long to be healed of its sting. Bring this to the Lord and humbly ask God to heal you, and transform the way you think and act. Your perspective needs to change and view any rejection as being “set up” for greater things. You are being positioned for promotion and blessing!

Your sister,

Pastor Kris Belfils

www.krisbelfils.com

www.HopeFellowshipSpokane.com

www.krisbelfils.wordpress.com

A Heart Of Compassion (Move with compassion like Jesus did!)

From the beginning of time God has always had mercy. It is Who He is. He never changes. His compassion for us never fails.

Compassion in the dictionary means: “A deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.”

Webster defines the word “Compassion” as; “Pity or Sympathy.”

From the Greek “Compassion” is defined as “Inward Affection, Pity or Sympathy, yearning.”

What compassion means to us today literally is “Suffering With Another!”

Compassion is action. Compassion moves. It doesn’t stand still. It doesn’t ignore the problem. And it surely doesn’t turn away when someone is in need.

Lam. 3:22 – 23 NKJV

“Through the LORD’S mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”

Because of God’s mercy we are not consumed. God’s character towards us can be described well with the word: “mercy.” Its His “tender mercies” that moves Him to help us.

The Old Testament word for mercy incorporates three things. His:

1. Covenant of compassion.
2. Consuming commitment to bring us into..
3. Everlasting communion with Himself.

Mercy and compassion are interchangeable. God’s mercy is His compassion towards us even when we deserve punishment. He is committed to restore us even though we deserve to endure the consequences of our sin, and His covenant of love and communion overwhelms us in the middle of our foolishness.

In this verse in Laminations “mercy” describes the Father’s intense emotional yearning for a wayward people – You and I.

God’s mercies are new every morning. This tells us that we need God’s mercy more then we think. Whether we feel weak or strong, we need God’s mercy everyday.

Psalm 78:38 – 39 NKJV

“But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them. Yes, many a time He turned His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath; For he remembered that they were but flesh, a breath that passes away and does not come again.”

God is FULL of compassion. I am so thankful for this. Too many times I have messed up and deserved judgement and punishment. There are times God does bring correction. It is God’s compassion that brings correction, but with correction God’s compassion comforts us and gives us strength to endure any consequences we may have to walk through because of our bad behavior.

The Bible tells us many times that God is compassionate or has mercy for us. Jesus is exactly like His Father. Jesus was moved with compassion often in His earthly ministry.

We have been looking at “The Roads That Jesus Walked.” This week we look at the road of compassion. Without compassion Jesus  wouldn’t of had such an impact on the world. He wouldn’t have come to save us because there is action to compassion.

Compassion of Jesus

1. Jesus has compassion for the Demoniac.  

Read Mark 5:1 – 19

Mark 5:19 NKJV

“However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.”

This man was demon possessed and lived in the tombs or caves. He was an outcast and rejected by society. No one could tame him. Nothing could hold him, not even iron shackles. Night and day he cried out and cut himself with stones. But when He saw Jesus, even the demonic, have to worship Him. He ran to Jesus and worshiped Him. Jesus cast out the demons and they went into the pigs. 2000 pigs couldn’t take the legion of demons and they ran violently down the steep hill into the sea and drowned. This man was extremely tormented! Scripture doesn’t say how he became that way. But it gives us some light on the compassion of Jesus. When the man wanted to follow Jesus where ever he went, Jesus told him to go back home. Jesus gave His live back to him. His family and friends. No more being an outcast or a reject. No more torment! Remember compassion is seeing the suffering and doing something about it. Jesus totally set this man free and restored his life back to him. This is compassion!

2.  Jesus has compassion for the lost.

Read Matthew 9:35 – 38

Matt. 9:36 NKJV

“But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.”

Jesus was moved with compassion over the multitudes. He saw them wondering and weak. He saw the great work that needed to be done. The people were ripe for harvest and many workers are needed to reach them. This is the very heart of God: people. We too must have this heart of compassion.

Jesus was moved with compassion! Lost souls moved Christ to cry out to them, to seek them, to save them. Again in the book of Mark we see Jesus moved with compassion.

Mark 6:34

“And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.”

3.  Jesus has compassion for the sick.

Any miracle that Jesus performed was out of compassion.

Read Mark 1:40 – 45

Mark 1:41 NKJV

“Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.”

Matt. 14:14 NKJV

“And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.”

The phrase “moved with compassion” here means “stirred to action.” Jesus didn’t just sit back and notice the needs of the people. He was moved, stirred in His heart. He felt their pain. There was more then an awareness of their situation, there was action.

So, what did Jesus do? He didn’t just talk. His heart was stirred at what He saw and He had a consuming desire to change things. The feelings of pity and sympathy He felt moved Him to action.

Compassion is not just pity or sympathy. It is more than being moved to tears or stirred up emotionally. Compassion means pity and mercy accompanied by a desire to help change things. True compassion moves us to do something!

“Compassion will cure more sin than condemnation.”

Henry Ward Beecher

 “Compassion without action is a wasted emotion”

Unknown

We need to have compassion for others. Not only do we need it, but it is a command in God’s word.

It’s not enough to have “pity” for someone. We need a deep awareness of the suffering of others and have the desire to do something about it. Compassion is actually something we are to put on and wear.

Colossians 3:12 – 14 Message

“So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.”

This is a powerful eye-opener of what we are to wear each day. Your life is not all about you. Your life is about others. Just loving yourself and being kind and compassionate to yourself is NOT the way to live, not according to God’s word. We are to be doers of the word and not hearers only.

James 1:22 – 25 HCSB

“But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his own face in a mirror; for he looks at himself, goes away, and right away forgets what kind of man he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who acts — this person will be blessed in what he does.”

If you call yourself a Christian, act like one! Show action with your compassion!

Pastor Kris Belfils

The antonyms of the word “compassion” are: “Cruelty, harshness, hatred, indifference, meanness, mercilessness, and tyranny.”

Do you have any of these traits? There is hope! We can ask Jesus to help us be more like Him and He will. The key is to be willing to change.

Christ didn’t HAVE TO do anything He did. He did the gracious, loving, kind, compassionate, wonderful things He did because He wanted to do them! They were the natural expression of His nature.

Christ’s compassion is available to us when we are hurting because He loves us and automatically wants to help us. In turn, we are to be compassionate towards others.

Of all the roads that Jesus walked, the “road of compassion” showed His love for others. I am thankful for the compassion of Christ. You and I need it desperately. To the degree Christ had compassion on you is the degree you should have compassion on others. We are all wretched people. There is no good in us apart from God. Any compassion in you is from God. When you think of it, we are helpless, hopeless until God, who moved with compassion, took action and sent His Son to save us. Shouldn’t we, in turn, move with compassion to give hope to others who don’t know Christ?

I leave you with this last verse:

1 Peter 3:8 – 9 Message

“Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless – that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.”

Your compassionate sister in Christ,

Pastor Kris Belfils

www.krisbelfils.com

www.hopefellowshipspokane.com

www.krisbelfils.wordpress.com

Brokenness

Matthew 16:24 – 25 NKJV

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

GIVING UP CONTROL: BROKENNESS

It is human nature to look out for yourself. You don’t have to teach a baby this. One of their first words they may say is, “Mine!” Parents work hard at teaching their children to share and to look out for others.

 “The pronouns “my” and “mine” look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant. They express the real nature of the old Adamic man better than a thousand volumes of theology could do. They are verbal symptoms of our deep disease. The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.”

A. W. Tozer “The Pursuit Of God”

We can be controlling and stingy at times. What does it mean to give God control of our lives? If we give God control, will He totally change us into something we don’t want to be? After all, allowing God to have control, with His time and purposes, takes too long.

How many of you have “helped” God out by going ahead with your own idea of what should happen?

Even if God birthed within us a vision or a goal, we try to hurry up the process in our own wisdom and power. But all we end up doing is make a mess of things.

We either do one of two things when it comes to control:

1. We don’t wait and take control our self.

a. We can see this mistake with Sarai (Sarah).

Genesis 16 (recap) Sarai had her Egyptian maid, Hagar, conceive Abraham’s child and Ishmael was born. Eventually, in God’s time, He allowed Sarai to conceive and Isaac was born. The two brothers fought, and their descendants fight to this day.

Sarai knew the promise that God gave Abram that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5).

Sarai had yet to give Abram a child. She was old and well past child bearing years.

Genesis 16 shows us what happens when we try to make something happen in our time instead of waiting on God for His time and purpose.

When we don’t wait for God’s time, and try to make things happen in our own time, only mistakes are made. Waiting is one of the hardest things for us humans to do, but when we do, we are blessed.

Our self-sufficiency can destroy us and our pride will prevent God’s favor and blessing to manifest in our lives.

The flesh is hard to tame. The only thing that will tame it is to lay it down at Christ’s feet and say, “Have your way in me.”

2. We submit and give God control

          a. Jesus gave up control to the Father when He literally laid down His life for His Father’s will.

Jesus said it well in Matthew 26:39b (Amplified Bible) “…My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will [not what I desire], but as You will and desire.”

The process of surrendering our all to Christ can be a difficult and painful process, yet extremely rewarding once we do it.

Philippians 1:21 (NKJV)

“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

Galatians 2:20 (NKJV)

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Dealing with your flesh

Now dealing with your flesh is hard. Your flesh or your will, doesn’t want to die.

It will scream out at you to stop. It will scream out in self-pity to have its way. Be aware of it when the time comes for you to let go of your control to God. If self-pity wins, sin has won. Press through the pain of letting go of your will. You will feel uncomfortable.

Peter, when he stepped outside of the boat, I’m sure, felt uncomfortable. His flesh said, “This doesn’t feel right.” “I’ve never felt this way before.” His spirit wanted to reach Jesus, but his flesh wanted to go back to the familiar (the boat) and be safe and comfortable again.

The world will tell you to look out for yourself, stand up for your rights, but God requires us to be broken and have a contrite heart.

Psalm 51:17 NKJV

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and contrite heart – These, O God, You will not despise.”

It’s never fun to die. It costs us something. Our will has to die. Flesh wants to run when it is costly or painful.

Amy Wilson, with the Christian Literature Crusade, expresses this thought well:

“God, harden me against myself,

The coward with pathetic voice

Who craves for ease and rest and joy.

Myself, arch-traitor to myself,

My hollowest friend,

My deadliest foe,

My clog, whatever road I go.”

A. W. Tozer states in “The pursuit of God” about dying to our flesh: “You have to pull it from its roots. The ancient curse will not go out painlessly; the tough old miser within us will not lie down and die obedient to our command. He must be torn out of our heart like a plant from the soil; he must be extracted in agony and blood like a tooth from the jaw. He must be expelled from our soul by violence as Christ expelled the money changers from the temple. And we shall need to steel ourselves against his piteous begging, and to recognize it as springing out of self-pity, one of the most reprehensible sins of the human heart.”

Sounds like fun, right! Our flesh will scream to have its way. We are only deceiving our self if we let it win. Part of our flesh is our pride. Pride comes in so many packages. One big package is our stubborn will.

There has to be brokenness within us to bring us to the place of giving God control.

What is brokenness? 

I think brokenness is more an attitude than an incident. There are many elements to brokenness.

1. Brokenness is a state of true humility.

a. We can try and be humble, but true humility is realizing our need for God. It is a knowing that life evolves around Him and not us.

b. True humility is a heart that wants to continually please God first and foremost above our own needs and wants.

c. True humility will prove itself. It proves the one whom it represents.

If we are walking in true humility, we will not want to be seen, or to be first in line, or to be expecting others to wait on us.

d. True humility will look out for the interests of others instead of always looking out for itself.

e. A true sign of humility is a person who is willing to serve, even when no one is looking. Are you a true humble servant?

2. Brokenness is the absence of pride.

There is a kind of pride that has a “Look at me” spirit attached to it. When you see it in others, it leaves a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. Have you ever watched American Idol or some other talent show? There are contestants who think they are “all that!” and there are contestants who are humble. Often those who think more highly of themselves then they should never make it on the show. They usually get mad and start shouting profanities because they didn’t get to go on to Hollywood and continue with the contest.

I’ve encountered prideful people many times as a Pastor and a Worship Leader working with a teams or people in the congregation. Satan fell from heaven because of his pride (Isaiah 14:12 – 15). I can see why worship team members may struggle with wanting to be seen, and even churches struggle over what kind of music is to be played during the service.

When working with teams, I’ve found the members who have pride built up in their hearts are the hardest to work with. The truly broken, humble members will want to help out in any way or in any place there is a need. Prideful members will want to be seen and want to have their way.

Those members, who have pride in their hearts, eventually will have to choose between two choices.

When pride is in our hearts, we have one of two choices we can make;

1.  We will finally notice the pride and want to change

2.  We will harden our hearts and continue deeper in our pride. This could possibly lead to destruction.

Proverbs 16:18 (NKJV)

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Isaiah 64:6 NKJV

“But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousness are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

Since experiencing first hand the destruction from my own pride, I’ve tried to warn other people of this possibility, but the only true school is the school of hard knocks. We all have to live it to really understand it.

Pride is an element that will defile us if never addressed. It’s easy to allow pride to build and grow in our hearts. It’s easy to shrug it off, as if it is not important. If you don’t think you have a lot of pride in you, don’t be deceived, everyone is susceptible to “pride buildup.”

Mark 7:20 – 23 (NKJV)

“And He (Jesus) said, ‘What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.’”

We should never think we can handle pride. Always lay the compliments people give you at the foot of the cross and leave it there. These “jewels” that were given to you are really Christ’s.

There is much grace for those that rid pride from their lives. It is an on going process. We will always be tempted with pride or self sufficiency, especially if you are in ministry of some sort. Practice laying down your pride and self will before God.

After pride was revealed in my heart, brokenness came. I saw and smelled the stench of my righteousness. I have seen first hand what my pride caused in the lives of so many people.

How does brokenness come?

►We can make bad choices

►Circumstances out of our control (Someone or something happened to you)

►We come to the reality of our humanity compared to God’s holiness and wisdom

►We come to the end of ourselves. (Prodigal son)

3.  Brokenness makes us reach up to God (Someone Who is bigger then us).

As a human, we are “fixer.” We try to fix the problem like Sarah and we end up making a bigger mess. I arrived there from my own hands of my attempted suicide. How could I have come to that place? I use to be able to trust myself in hard times. Never did I think I would ever try and kill myself… Have you ever thought that?

It has been many years now since that dreadful dark time in my life, but from that time came brokenness in my heart which I desperately needed.

I’ve thought long and hard about brokenness and what it really means spiritually.

Brokenness is…

…The realization of who I am compared to God.

…A true humility and submissive heart to God.

…A heart’s cry of desperation to a loving God.

…Waiting on God’s time, not mine.

…Laying down my crowns and dreams for God’s

…Not wanting my will, but God’s

…Letting go of my control to God.

…A heart of obedience and thankfulness towards God.

…A realization of my self-righteousness compared to God’s

…A knowing that I’m lost without God.

Why is it so important to be broken before the Lord? 

1.  Our pride can keep us from a close relationship with God.

1 Peter 5:5b (NKJV)

“…God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

2.  Being broken automatically gives us a teachable heart. It gives us grace to walk through any struggle or circumstance humbly and with open ears to wise counsel.

3.  When we are broken and humble before God it makes us more sensitive to others and their needs. We have compassion and understanding towards others and what they are going through. If you lack compassion, chances are you are prideful.

4.  God can use broken things more than He can use rigid things.

Brokenness and pride cannot coexist. God cannot use a person who is not broken and completely surrendered to Him. We need to be pliable in God’s hands. Remember His is the Potter and we are the clay.

“A lack of brokenness causes a person who is used by God to become proud and arrogant. However, when one is broken, their heart resists pride. Therefore, they can be used to a greater degree.”

Pastor Cho, Seoul Korea

Broken things God used: (“Broken to be used!”)

1.  Jesus was broken, yielding to His heavenly Father’s wishes instead of His own. (Luke 22:42) He allowed His precious body to be broken for all of us.

2.  Jesus took the five loaves of bread and broke them to feed the huge crowd (Mark 8:1 – 10)

3.  The sinful woman brought the costly perfumed oil and broke it and poured it on Christ’s feet. It meant nothing until she broke it open and poured it out for her Savior (Matthew 26:7, Mark 14:3, and Luke 7:37).

God uses broken things. Brokenness causes repentance and desperation for Him. There has to be a deep brokenness in us to experience all that God has for us. Broken vessels for God’s glory. Relying upon His sufficiency not ours. This moves the heart of God!

At my point of brokenness, all I could do was cry. When people would come and talk to me about my past, I was tearfully broken. I couldn’t stop the tears.

Sometimes brokenness is all we have to offer people. This is a good place to be. God can take our brokenness—our nothing, and multiply it into something. God is working on our behalf. We can trust Him in the middle of our brokenness.

Where are you today? Where is your heart? Do you have pride or arrogance built up in your heart? Have you tried to fix things on your own? Have you given your control back to God?

God never allows brokenness to come without making you whole again. You will see how much God loves you, and to what extent He will go too bring total and complete healing into your life from any circumstance you’ve experienced in the past, or what you may be going through right now. Trust God to bring healing and wholeness to your life. He never leaves you incomplete. Unlike human nature, God’s nature is to fix us. First He usually brings us to a place where we see our humanity and then, once we discover humility, God starts the healing process in us in such a way we are totally and completely healed of any pride. Then, somehow, someway God makes beauty from ashes, especially the ashes that were started by our own match we lit.

You will be triumphant as you walk humbly with God and others. God is good all the time, even when He brings correction into our lives. Yield to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. You will be forever changed for God’s glory. It’s a safe place to be in the Potter’s hands.

Blessing,

Pastor Kris Belfils

www.krisbelfils.com

www.krisbelfils.wordpress.com

www.hopefellowshipspokane.com