The Beauty of the End-time Bride: Brokenness

What is Brokenness?

Don’t you just love titles like the one above? I do. I just can’t resist a witty response. I’m that kind of a person. Ooohh… I gotta say it: “Well, duh, it means something is broken!”

Well, I feel much better having gotten that off my chest! Now that I’ve stated the obvious, what exactly, gets broken? That’s the $64,000 question. This is where we get serious and ponder deep thoughts. I’m that kind of a person, too. Yeah, I have a complex personality, but enough about me!

What do you mean by broken?!

Having batted the word broken around now about half-a-dozen times you’re probably beginning to think: “Broken? Wait a minute! Who said anything about breaking something? I don’t want to be broken! Why in the world would you even think I want something broken?! That can’t be good for me, can it? It can’t, right!?!”

Okay, before you get all lathered up, let’s deal with some of these questions. There are three questions in that rant that really matter, so let’s get the answers.

The first is: “Who said anything about breaking something?” The answer: God, and He said it in the Bible. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” (Psalm 51:17 NASB)

The second question is: “Why in the world would you even think I want something broken?” That answer: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18 NASB) If you do not realize there is nothing in life better than the nearness of God and His salvation, this book will not make any sense to you.

The third question is: “That can’t be good for me, can it?” Yes, it will be the absolute best thing not just for you, but for everyone around you and most importantly, exactly what God made you to be!

But what exactly is breaking?

You might have trouble with my thesis stating God desires us to be broken. And I thoroughly understand. Breaking can mean many things.

Think about what we mean by a pet being housebroken. No one broke Fido’s back or lacerated the paws of Morris. All that happened was unacceptable behaviors, like discharging waste whenever and wherever they feel the urge, have been disciplined out of them. Have you ever heard about breaking in a baseball glove? After being broken-in it is easier to use and more comfortable. This is what David was talking about in Psalm 51:17.

We all know God wants to use us, but have we thought about how broken we are to His hand? When God works through our lives, is it comfortable to Him, or uncomfortable?

God desires unacceptable behaviors, ungodly thinking, and surface-only “Christianity” to be gone from our lives. We know this to a certain extent, but we might be surprised just how deeply God desires to heaven-break us.

There is, however, a brokenness God wishes to heal and bring restoration to those places in your life. This brokenness comes from the sin we commit, and sins others have inflicted upon us. Some of you might still have trouble with my book title and terminology because you can’t begin to imagine God desiring us to be broken this way. And you’re perfectly right in your thinking!

I am talking about brokenness as God’s process of conforming us to His blueprint for our identity. God desires we become so thoroughly broken toward our sin-marred state we will willingly pay the price to war against it without ceasing.

What does this have to do with the end-time bride?

This book is for the bride for whom Jesus will return. It seems like we’re all sitting around waiting for the date when He will come. (If you think there is some word play between bride and date, you’re right on track!) I believe instead of sitting around, we need to do something to “get the date.” We need to make ourselves desirable and catch the eye of the One we love. It would be easy to dismiss my opinion, but let me take cover behind the Bible.

Paul wrote about husbands and wives while expounding his teaching of what the church is. He commanded husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church…

…that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless. (Ephesians 5:26-27 NASB)

Christ doesn’t want to come back for a soiled, dirty, stinking, rotten, flesh-defiled, stiff-necked and hard-hearted bride! Would you want to be married for eternity to that?!? He wants to come for the glorious church. Well, maybe you think I overstate how bad things are. (See, you can’t just flat-out contradict me by saying the church is nothing like that!)

I know when God looks at us He sees Christ in us. But how much Christ can He see in us through all of the us in us? God knows exactly what no spot or wrinkle looks like, but do you think that is what He sees when He looks at us?

I will not try to prove what the bride is or is not. If you are unaware that what Jesus wants His bride (the church) to be is still potential for the future and not real in the present, I pray God will open your eyes. But if your heart yearns enough for the Bridegroom that you want to attract Him, reading this can get you questing in the right direction, by God’s grace.