The LORD heals the brokenhearted
and binds their wounds.
He does not delight in the strength of the horse,
and He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him,
in those who hope for His mercy.
Note: The above photo is my precious niece Julia 18 years ago with my father-in-law's horse Star. Beautiful!
I chose the horse to be the backdrop of this Rest Stop because it is common to relate how a Christian is broken to how a horse is broken. This perception is that a wild horse is put in a controlling situation and tries to buck his way to stay in control. The horse eventually wears himself down and surrenders control to his rider.
There is some truth in how this parallels a Christian's experience. However, it can also be misleading if we depend only on this common illustration for the truth rather than God's Word the Bible.
Be encouarged by the following truths!
THE TRUTH ABOUT BROKENNESS
The following recent Facebook quotation by Andrew Farley is so helpful to me in my walk with Christ and my ministry of Christ to others. Andrew is president of Operation 220, a sister ministry of Journey in Christ in Dallas, Texas. He is also pastor of Ecclesia: Church Without Religion in Texas.
The
term "brokenness" can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. It can accidentally be a loaded term with many
indirect implications about the nature of God. I'd like to share a few things about brokenness.
The way of the world and the way of the flesh fail us every single time;
and realizing that can be painful for us.
Planet Earth comes
at us. Christ works in us.
God is our Counselor, our Comforter, our
Helper in time of need. Tough and
painful choices lie ahead as we discover faulty belief systems and learn to
choose dependency on Christ instead of the empty, unfulfilling ways of the
past.
In one sense, we come into this world "broken,"
i.e., not functioning the way we are intended. After salvation, the way of the flesh is still
a broken and painful way for us to live. God wants us to abandon it and enjoy life in
Him. So
the ways of the world, the flesh, and the enemy have plenty of pain and
disillusionment to throw our way.
Still,
we need to remember that God is our loving Father who even grieves over us when
we are in pain. He is certainly not the
author of our pain.
We may use the term "brokenness," and that's fine, but let's make sure our view of God
the Father is not broken in the process!
One person may say "God
brought me to brokenness" and they only mean that He lovingly comforted
and counseled them through their encounter with the flesh. God certainly does this!
However, another person may hear this statement
and imagine a passive-aggressive Father who hurls disaster in front of us and
then asks, "Do you need Me now?"
This is why we need to be careful and clear with terms and our meaning
when it comes to Bible teaching.
A PICTURE OF BROKENNESS
A couple of years ago I heard a man explain how he was an expert on breaking horses. I was surprised that his approach did not include the common approach of forcing a horse to buck his way to brokenness. His approach struck me as a more beautiful picture of the biblical truth of how God relates to His children.
This man said that getting on the back of a wild horse is the reason a horse bucks. The horse simply has never experienced this and, as a result, tries to buck the rider off. Surely the rider on the back of a bucking horse is not a true picture of our Almighty God and Father!
Rather than getting on the horse's back, this man tenderly connects with the horse by putting reins on the horse with long lead lines. The man takes the end of the reins and stays well behind the horse, perhaps 20 to 30 feet or so.
The man never loses contact with the horse. There is a vital personal connection, akin to the vital union we have with Christ as revealed in Romans 6 and many other Scriptures.
Periodically and patiently, the man tenderly jiggles the reins to tap the horse on the side of the horse's legs. In this way, the horse knows the man is connected with him and is relating to him.
Slowly but surely, the man gets closer and closer to the horse, all the while jiggling the reins to tap the sides of the horses legs.
Eventually the man gets close enough to touch the horse. And again, slowly but surely, the man keeps touching the horse tenderly while approaching the front of the horse.
Ultimately the man and the horse are face to face.
This is not a perfect analogy to the biblical truth, but I hope it a helpful analogy. Do you see how this picture of breaking horse is more in line with hte biblical view of brokenness as previously described by Andrew Farley?
CLOSING
This picture of a horse with a young child in the snow is a beautiful picture of relationship!
Rest in your relationship with the Father trust in His perfect ways to strip away any of your fleshly attempts to live a Christian life. His heart is for you to intimately know and experience His Beloved Son and to manifest the life of Christ to many others.
In Christ,
The Truth about Brokenness 
