Sweetly Broken...

BREAK WINDOWS post by snort


I cry out to God;
I call to God, and he will hear me.
I look for the Lord on the day of trouble.
All night long I reach out my hands,
but I cannot be comforted.
When I remember God, I become upset;
when I think, I become afraid. Selah

You keep my eyes from closing.
I am too upset to say anything.
I keep thinking about the old days,
the years of long ago.
At night I remember my songs.
I think and I ask myself:
"Will the Lord reject us forever?
Will he never be kind to us again?
Is his love gone forever?
Has he stopped speaking for all time?

Has God forgotten mercy?
Is he too angry to pity us?" Selah
Psalm 77:1-9


Brokenness


There is a window in your heart through which you can see God. Once upon a time that window was clear. Your view of God was crisp. You could see God as vividly as you could see a gentle valley or hillside. The glass was clear, the pane unbroken,.

Then suddenly, the window cracked. A pebble broke the window. A pebble of pain.

Perhaps the stone struck when you were a child and a parent left home--forever. Maybe the rock hit in adolescence when your heart was broken. Maybe you made it into adulthood before the window was cracked. But then the pebble came.

Whatever the pebble's form, the result was the same--a shattered window. the pebble missiled into the pane and shattered it. The crash echoed down the halls of your heart . . . and suddenly God was not so easy to see. The view that had been so crisp had changed. You turned to see God, and his figure was distorted. It was hard to see him through the pain. It was hard to see him through the fragments of hurt.

You were puzzled. God wouldn't allow something like this to happen, would he? Tragedy and travesty weren't on the agenda of the One you had seen, were they? Had you been fooled? had you been blind?

The moment the pebble struck, the glass became a reference point for you. From then on, there was life before the pain and life after the pain. Before you pain, the view was clear; God seemed a bit distant . . . harder to perceive. You pain distorted the view-- not eclipsed it, but distorted it.

STUDY GUIDE

* What kinds of circumstances cause such pain in our live that our perception of God is altered?

* Why do painful circumstances sometimes make us doubt God's good intentions toward us?

* Describe the path that you think is necessary to fix a pain-distorted view of God.

* What are some reasons we sometimes assume life should be pain-free?

* What are the emotions we feel when we face great pain in life?

* What else would you compare pain to beside a storm?

* How do you get perspective when you wonder, "Is God doing this to me, or is this just life happening?"

* How long do you think it takes to restore a pain distorted view of God?

* What kind of painful storm are you riding through right now?


The Devotional Bible - Experiencing the Heart of Jesus, Max Lucado, General Editor,Thomas Nelson Publishers, New Century Version

Sweetly Broken - Life Worship

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