The "b" word is not my final answer

One day I asked some questions on Facebook. They were:

"My life doesn't look broken, but I feel broken. Who can I tell?"
"How can I get over the hurt?" "Does God even care that I feel this way?
"My childhood is long behind me, so why do I still feel like a hurting little girl?"
"Does God see us as broken? Can anyone be so heartbroken that they are beyond healing?"
"Where does healing begin? What does God have for me?"
"How far is too far before God gives up on you?"
"My brokenness comes from the choices of others. Where was God when it took place?"

It seems there is a common thread in these questions. The word I don't like to use. Broken.

I understand it's only a word, but it's the destination of this word that I'd like to address. What I know about God is that He is in our broken places.  "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.  A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all." Ps. 34:18-19

What God knows is that we have those places that need a repair. But I don't think He wants us to stay in a state of brokenness. With Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, God has already given us a covering of forgiveness that has canceled our brokenness and He offers deliverance for every one of them.  

Deliverance out of brokenness is God's final answer.

God will restore what seems to be the broken in our lives. We shouldn't hide behind our broken state as He would never leave us in a state of disrepair.  I believe our brokenness is a state of mind versus and  runaway destination.  So for me, it's not my final answer to stay there.  Where do we get the idea that God doesn't want us whole and healed? Do you not feel forgiven from a past hurt? What is causing your feelings of separation from your Healer? 

Fear wants you to believe you are beyond repair.  Fear is never invited to be the final answer.

God sees us as whole. It's the only way he can see us. So if you are feeling "broken" then there is something that is hindering you.  Perhaps it's from hurts from your past, hurts from your parents, or emotional scars from abuse that still need to be dealt with. Forgiving those who have caused the hurt helps.  Whatever is throwing doubt into your life, it needs to be removed, cut out, or forgotten about. We have to choose to believe and receive God's healing in store for us.  We must grasp a heavenly perspective of how God sees us. Seeing ourselves as God sees us is a choice. Hurts keep us bound to some deep brokenness. Healing God's way paves the way to wholeness.

Wholeness is God's final answer, not broken pieces.

"I want to be whole!" was my emotional cry out to God one day. It was painful and there were many free flowing tears.  I had to choose to believe that His grace and His gentle love could heal my emotional scars too.  I had to honestly admit my weakness of hiding behind hurts to cover the pains of my past.  In the uncovering God provided a supernaturally love-powered healing that covered me in ways I can't describe. When I accepted and submitted to His ways, it brought much mending.

Emotional healing came through in ways I can't say.

So I refuse to use the "b" word as a final destination for where my heart will stay.  God's grace has bridged the gap.  His ways bring a straight path to our hearts that have been wounded, hurt, and have weak pieces.  The choice to be put back together by way of giving it all over to God to manage can sometimes be puzzling and uncertain, but in doing so we will receive His best and final answer by drawing closer to His character.

The outcome is the only right choice to make. Believe that God is for you and is not holding anything against you. You too can rest in knowing that His love is real.   God sees you and keeps you near.  He knows you as you long to be fully known.  We are His righteous as His sons and daughters.  If you have accepted Christ as your Savior, then you have all the wholeness you need.  Christ didn't hold back on that day your life was changed.  

We became co-heirs with Christ when we accepted His work on the cross as our final answer to salvation.  

When we grasp who we are in Christ, our identity is something that can never be broken. Yes, we will have trouble in this world but God has delivered us from all our brokenness.
When we grasp our likeness in Christ, when we know that we are His, by the reconciliation that only comes from the One who has overcome death, then this bond of God's love is powerful and can never be broken.

Never. God's love for us can't be broken.

So consider this...if you feel like you are broken perhaps it's your perspective that needs a repair. The wonderful thing about God is that He loves you enough to reach into the deepest parts of your need and reveal to you just what you are longing for. He will bring the right amount of mending in ways that could never be stolen, broken, or hurt again.

God's love is the strongest to cover all our fragile pieces.

Even when your brokenness feels so overwhelming, know that all of your emotional hurts, wounds, the old, the fresh cuts, whether they are deep or wide or long are fixable. Even if they can't come to the heart's surface, even if you have buried them deep. God doesn't hold back His healing that helps us become more like Him. Believe that He wants you to be whole too, after all, He sent His one and only Healer to take care of every wound that's in you right now.

"Stop making what your past did to you greater than what Jesus did for you." ~ Christine Caine. 

God wants to use you to make a difference but he wants to heal you of the fears laying deep inside first.  The healing you long for is His best final answer.

It took my breath away

Photo credit:  The Photo Shoppe

I had the most amazing experience last week.  It wasn't a big deal except to me.

That's what this blog is for.  To inspire you to look for God in your every day life.

I had a professional head shot session done by Mary Waters, a local photographer, Her grace reflected a changed heart for God and I experienced God's comforting presence the moment I walked into her studio.   Because of her engaging personality, I was able to let my guard down.

I was able to put aside my fear of being captured on camera.

That's what God wants, for us to be real.  He wants us to show and share how becoming His beauty in real and practical ways.

When Christ's true beauty is the lens of our hearts it shouldn't be contained.

God also knows it's a challenge for me to let people into my past.  But He took care of that and paved the way into my soul to connect with Mary's own authenticity.

What God did in a couple of hours took my breath away when I thought about it.

Isn't that just the kindest thing ever?

You think this was just about taking a few head shots for an upcoming speaking engagement.  But God...has His developing ways, and had this angle already covered for me.  His mercy and grace brings the perfect amount of His goodness to each opportunity where we invite Him in.

I'm not just talking about a cherry on a Sundae here, I'm talking about a holy touch of His Presence to the depths of my soul.  To experience God, in HIS real and authentic way.

As I saw just one finished photo I gasped.  When I saw them all I was overwhelmed with healing tears. At last, I could see God's beauty changes in me, I could see what God has been becoming deep within my heart for years.  My fears were washed away from one look of God's view of me.

Instead of seeing chopped liver, I saw that I was His valentine.

All my fears of capturing my worst side...
All my fears of seeing the imperfections...
All my fears of me looking inward...

...were rolled away.  My heart has been awakened to the freedom that I've always had in claiming my identity in the one Perfect Savior.

What erased my fears and took my breath was an holy look into the true transformation in my heart that could only come from God who said, "Look what you've become, holy, set apart, and mine."

And in that moment...I saw beauty.  I saw Christ.  I saw my freedom.  I saw me from God's lens, the angle He's always held.

Now there are no more negatives.  I have freedom in being captured by His love lens.

Freedom from fear of the opinion of others.
Freedom to live from God's holy approval.
Freedom in seeing His beauty in my imperfections.
Freedom from hiding His awesome transformations.

All just a few photos.  Life-changing when you submit your heart to the One who created you with His holy breath.

My prayer:  God I'm all in.  Have your way in me.  Show me how to be the godly woman you have designed me to be and how to imitate You.  May I be the worshiper you have created me to be.

When you are bruised by fears God will still use them in a most glorious way, may His peace always pave the way to our freedom.  God have your way with me.

2 Timothy 1:7  "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."

What kind of fear are you trying to overcome today?

You can listen to facing fears, how I faced a BIG fear of losing 132 lbs. and much more here.

Five Minute Friday {Dance}

Dancing in the Desert

God has taught me some vital moves.

Moves that I need to survive this journey through the desert.

In one word, He has taught me to trust.  Completely.

There have been some personal struggles that I have overcome.

I am still working through some too.  

I have hope and will cling to His promises that I find daily when I read His word.


Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. Ps. 62:8

Faith endures and what He has given me has proven to be enough.

This desert journey has been one of tears, fears, and cheers.

Full of joy, sorrow, suffering, rich in healing, comfort and grace.

Loads of trials and victories too, riddled with conflicts and tension, triumphs, hardships, trouble.

Many understandings that have protected and prevented mistakes.  

God's mercy has brought me to His side.   

His perfect trust teaches me to dance in this desert.  

Five Minute Friday {Prayer}

Prayer is our language to God.  

Prayer is power.  Prayer is worship.

God honors our prayers.  

He loves the bold ones, the timid ones, the soft and the loud.  

He hears the quiet stillness of our hearts when we lean in to hear Him.  

He strains to hear our words of praise.  

Our first step of faith is received in a prayer.  

He loves to tell us His whispers.  He longs for us to wait for His timing.  

He loves to hold our dreams tight until he deems them right.  

He wants our desperate hearts.  He hears our tears and fears.  

In prayer, we can let go and let Him grow. He plants passion within our prayers to inspire us.  

Bold prayers honor God.  He loves to draw us near; he loves to keep us in His grip.  

Prayer reveals His truth in our hearts.  

Prayer does not prepare us for the battle; prayer is the battle.

"We take for granted prayer is the preparation for work, whereas prayer is the work."  Oswald Chambers

Take a look in God's word..it's loaded with prayers of those who talked with God.