Hi, I'm Leslie Ludi, host of the Set-A-Parle Podcast, biblical encouragement for women of all ages.

Today we're going to look at the question

is brokenness beautiful.

Have you ever stopped to think about that question

because this is a very common mindset in the church today to celebrate our own brokenness.

Maybe you've read modern books or seen it on blogs or heard it in messages or even sung about it in worship services there seems to be this real emphasis on

let's all accept and embrace and celebrate our brokenness our brokenness is beautiful

I want to look at that mindset today from a biblical perspective. A lot of us are

broken over past mistakes that we've made and rather than letting God deal with those past mistakes by the power of his name

by the power of the blood of Jesus we often wallow in those past mistakes and feel

like well I'm broken this has happened to me or I made this mistake I have these

regrets and that almost becomes part of our identity and then we go around saying I'm a

broken person but my brokenness is beautiful. Actually in scripture that is not a

biblical concept at all. The power of Jesus name, the power of the cross, is meant to

lead us out of brokenness and into wholeness. How do we get there?

There was a time in my life when I was really struggling to feel forgiven, even though

I had prayed to confess my sin and repent and I had I had removed things from my life that I knew were wrong. I still didn't feel cleansed and whole and may knew. I still felt broken over my past and I remember a very specific moment when I was so

frustrated by just constantly feeling shame and remorse and regret and brokenness

over the past that I said Lord I need you to make your forgiveness real to me it just

feels like a theory or a concept it doesn't feel real to me and at that moment there

was a really clear message to my soul, I have forgiven you, but you must receive it.

That was such a wake-up call for me because I realized I had been pushing away God's promise

...