I know it feels like you are. Losing your lunch in a parking lot because of a panic attack makes you feel broken. Racing thoughts that keep sleep at bay for days at a time can make you wonder if you’re crazy. Having flashbacks that make you leave a full grocery cart in an aisle while you run to your car and lock the doors can make you feel you will never be normal. But please hear this:
YOU ARE NOT BROKEN. Click To TweetThere are mysteries that God created in the human body that doctors and scientists are just now beginning to understand. It’s been less than 100 years since scientists discovered neurons and the chemical and electrical functions within the brain. Less than 30 years since doctors discovered that traumas we experience in childhood impact our physical health into our adulthood, even playing a part in our life expectancy. Just in the last 10 years have scientists discovered that trauma can change our DNA, the effects of which can pass genetically on to our children—a truth shockingly relevant considering Deuteronomy 5:9-10.
“I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
When the Psalmist recorded that you are beautifully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139), he wasn’t exaggerating to prove a point. God made you in His image—a wondrous masterpiece of cells and synapses woven together to proclaim His glory. When your body recognizes a potential threat and reacts according to the way God programmed it to protect you, that doesn’t mean that something’s wrong with you. Your body is doing exactly what God designed it to do. That you may later be ashamed by those reactions is nothing more than your Enemy whispering lies into your ears to make you feel shame God never intended for you to carry.
When God formed your body in the darkness of your mother’s womb, He did so with love. It doesn’t matter if the instigation of the miracle was rape or the woman who carried you abandoned you in the hospital, God loves you. God has always loved you and will always love you.
Nothing that you have done and nothing anyone has done to you can ever change God’s love for you. Sin is not bigger than your God. Trauma is not bigger than your God.
“Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39
YOU ARE BRAVE.
YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.
YOU ARE LOVED.
You are not broken. In fact, the next time the Enemy tries to make you feel less than the breathtaking masterpiece that you are, shout back at him this:
“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” – Isaiah 61:10
There is nothing more stunning than a glittering bride, and you, my friend, are the Bride of Christ. Hold your head high and let 2020 be the year you ripped the word “broken” from your vocabulary. You may be quirky, unique, and feisty. You can call yourself a work-in-progress. You can even be a phoenix rising out of the ashes of the past. But you are not, nor will you ever be broken.
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Photo by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash