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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: BROKEN (12/06/18)
One of my favorite things is walking barefoot in a freshly plowed field. The plow cuts through the earth making a deep cut into the ground , causing dirt to mound in a straight line beside the grove cut by the blades of the plow. How beautiful and sweet the smell of freshly plowed earth. Oh the feeling of sinking my feet into the cool dirt on a hot summer day! It is so cool and damp when the surface is hard, dry and hot. The thing about growing and healing is that nothing can grow or heal unless first broken. The earth must be disturbed and cut into, to have a cool damp place for the seed to germinate. This action creates the perfect conditions for plants to grow.

If you think about it, the most beautiful things come from brokenness. The seed has to break open to allow the sprout to come through. The earth has to break open again to allow the plant to grow above the surface. The bud of the plant must burst open to allow the fruit to grow. The fruit must then be ripped from the stalk of the plant to for harvest. Everything that grows in nature continually breaks then change to allow it’s self to transform into a fruitful beautiful, useful material.

We are no different than seeds. We are but broken vessels, continually breaking and changing in order to flourish and produce good fruit. Each level of understanding, each trial, each storm, breaks us, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot; but if we will release and discard the brokenness, God will allow us to mature into beautiful fruit for His glory!

Psalm 50:10-17 (KJV)
10. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
14. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
16. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, Oh god, thou wilt not despise.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Claudia Barrington
12/14/18
You wisely chose the particular scripture passage David wrote (by Holy Spirit of course) after he repented of his great sins with Bathsheba and her husband. That's definitely an appropriate reference for brokeness.

One sentence I thought needed revision was this one: "The plow cuts through the earth making a deep cut into the ground..." The earth and the ground are the same thing so it is repetitive. I think you should choose one phrasing or the other.

The message presented carried a loving and gentle spirit and caused me to want to put my feet into feshly plowed earth. I'd never experienced doing that until I read your first paragraph. Thank you.
Taryn Deets
12/19/18
I love your image of a seed for this topic! Thanks too for the verse, it is great comfort to the suffering and broken!
Taryn Deets
12/19/18
Great image of the broken earth, seed and new growth. I like the psalm you included as well, adding to the image of our sin/brokenness coming as a fruit of the Spirit's work in us.
Linda Lawrence
12/19/18
A publishable devotional! Well-written and thought provoking.