Broken Places

I recently had a victory. Can I get a Halelujah!? And it reminded me of this …

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Satan attacks at our broken places.

Usually the enemy doesn’t even use bad things necessarily to attack or tempt me.  He’s too smart for that.  What he uses are subtle situations that take advantage of some weak place.  A broken place.

Think of an enemy seeking to conquer a walled city. Of course the plan of attack would be to break in wherever the wall is broken, where it is weak, where the coverage isn’t great. Wherever there is a crack of brokenness, the enemy will press on that place to seek to conquer.

I recently experienced one of these attacks. Again, it was not a huge deal, or even a bad thing. But it so triggered an emotional response that I realized, “I have a broken place.”

I had a place in my heart that had somehow believed a lie, or had not been made whole by God’s work and love, and had therefore been allowed to remain in a state of brokenness, a state of weakness.  Like that wall. A place of vulnerability to attack.

A broken place is somewhere in our hearts that God has not yet made whole.

This is why at times we can face the fiercest opposition and remain absolutely confident, cool, joyful, steadfast. And then at other times the smallest of circumstances can send us into a heap of tears, cowering, ready to abandon whatever mission God has called us to carry out.  We’re ready to quit, because the enemy has discovered our broken place.

But there is good news.

Everything Satan means for harm, God means for good.

Everything.

That means that when Satan discovers the broken place, and calls forth an all-out attack on that vulnerable spot, we can rejoice because he’s just done us a favor–he’s shown us the area that God wants to rebuild.

Last night as I was sharing with Jeff my struggle, I came to a point in my story and, almost to my surprise, my broken cracked with such emotion that I could not speak.  And that is the most helpful revelation of all, because it reveals exactly where the broken spot is located.

That crack in my voice revealed the crack in my heart.

And that crack in my heart is exactly what God wants to make whole. Where He wants to touch. Where He wants to bring His soothing, healing, balm. To heal. To restore.

That is hope. And hope never disappoints.

Nothing is more satisfying than seeing an attack turned on its head and used for our good.  For God’s good. That is victory, girls.

Let’s take our broken places to God.  He wants to make them whole.

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My “broken place” is usually the lie that “I’m not good at parenting.” There. I said it. But recently Satan wanted to come knocking on my door and drag me into the gutter with it. Guess what? I didn’t go down! God’s grace is changing us and making us new. We CAN experience victory, and we do well to celebrate when we do. He is good! He is able! He is faithful. Where is your broken place and how can you believe God to make it whole today? Thanks for reading…