Making sense of adversity.

When a crisis enters your life how do you respond? Os
Hillman was a successful advertising agency executive
who's world quickly changed when his marriage,
business and personal finances all crashed at the same
time. One day things were status quo, the next day he
questioned the reality of God. What He learned in the
process will help you make sense of unexpected events
that God brings into your life. For more, check out
Adversity & Pain: The Gifts Nobody Wants by Os
Hillman. Order Adversity & Pain: The Gifts Nobody
Wants

The Strength of Brokenness
Thursday, June 19, 2003

by Os Hillman

The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who
stumbled are armed with strength. -- 1 Samuel 2:4

There is an oxymoron throughout the Bible. It says
that brokenness is strength. How can this be? How can
brokenness be strength? In order to use men and women
to their fullest extent, the Lord has to break His
servants so that they might have a new kind of
strength that is not human in origin. It is strength
in spirit that is born only through brokenness.

Paul was broken on the Damascus road. Peter was broken
after Jesus was taken prisoner. Jacob was broken at
Peniel. David was broken after his sin with Bathsheba.
The list could go on of those the Lord had to break in
different ways before they could be used in the
Kingdom.

When we are broken, we see the frailty of human
strength and come to grips with the reality that we
can do nothing in our own strength. Then, new strength
emerges that God uses mightily. God resists the proud
but gives grace to the humble.

Do not fear brokenness. For it may be the missing
ingredient to a life that emerges with a new kind of
strength and experience not known before. Pray for a
broken and contrite heart that God can bless.



God bless you all!
BK

=====
"No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his
love has been brought to full expression through us." 1 John 4:12

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