The Gift of Brokenness: The Lord Remembers You
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”
James 1:12
Hi there! Someone is reading this word today who has been holding onto a promise for years, and you feel defeated and even heartsick because of the long, drawn-out process. Like Hannah in the Old Testament, you have approached the throne of grace year after year without seeing any change. First of all, Jesus absolutely loves and adores you. He sees you and knows your anguish. Secondly, the Lord remembers you. He is with you in the process.
Hope deferred and longsuffering are two gut-wrenching seasons that many Christians will face during their lifetimes and it’s not easy. The long process of God fulfilling a promise can make one grow weak in spirit, soul and body. At first, you’re excited and emboldened to walk the journey…but years of waiting can eventually dampen the enthusiasm. The heart sometimes cries out in anguish as disappointment settles in.
The burden of waiting can become unbearable.
When unmet pain sticks around for too long, it can evolve into grief and a broken spirit, slashing the soul like a thousand paper cuts.
If not addressed by God, the heart wounds will become infected, latching onto our spirits like erosive barnacles clinging to the underbelly of a beautiful ship. That’s why we need a Savior. Only Jesus can heal us in places that remain hidden and out of sight to others.
God is a Father who loves you more than anything else and He wants to walk this journey with you. He’s going to polish you up and get you prepared for the promise. The delay is not denial. Hang tight because the Lord is going to help you.
If we allow Jesus to step inside our pain, He’ll perform heart surgery to remove all the foreign objects that do not belong. He will give us the grace to endure longer, propelling our spirits forward with His mighty wind and power. The Lord Jesus cares about fortifying our character through the process of waiting and He’s always at work behind the scenes.
Time is a gift from Him even when we can’t see or understand what’s happening.
God always does complete work. He will anchor and steady our souls to push through the pain when it seems like all hope is lost. Jesus knows the journey of suffering all too well. One of the prominent roles of the Messiah was to “heal the brokenhearted” (Is. 61:1-3), and Jesus is going to help you stand again. The Lord cares about spiritual renewal because sometimes an underlying issue must be rooted out, like fear, rejection, abuse, betrayal, persecution, oppression and abandonment. Jesus is very close to people in this state. He will come in with His tender touch and bring ointment and healing to all your broken pieces. The best way to endure suffering is to model Christ. There will be a victory that emerges from pain. God will see you through, and you will come out better. He will heal your heart and teach you to love and trust again.
He will give you the grace to persevere through long seasons of barrenness. He will strengthen your hope in Him. God will then use you to help others.
This week the Lord highlighted Hannah’s story in 1 Samuel 1. Like her, some of you are still holding strong to a promise God spoke over your life that has yet to be fulfilled. As each year passes, it’s getting harder and harder to keep hope alive. It feels like the promise will never happen.
You might even have questions like…..
Where is Jesus? What is He doing? Why is this taking place? What’s taking so long?
The Lord sent me with a message to encourage your weary soul, and here it is:
GOD WILL BRING FORTH THE PROMISE HE SPOKE, SO KEEP HOLDING ON TO HIM WITH ALL YOU HAVE! DIG DEEP, PRESS FORWARD AND REMAIN STEADFAST IN HOPE! DO NOT GIVE UP! THE FATHER IS WORKING BEHIND THE SCENES! YOUR DUE DATE WILL COME.
Jesus sees and knows your pain, and He’s with you every step of the way. He sees your tears. He feels your agony. The Father knows the loneliness that grips your life. He understands your confusion, disappointment and the pain of waiting. God knows your faithfulness and how hard it is to keep pressing forward. The Holy Spirit is going to send you even more comfort this season. You are directly in His line of sight. The Lord will reward you.
Somehow, in God’s infinite and merciful ways, He will even renew your strength and give you a new boost of hope through the sorrow. God is going to do what He said. You must hang tight because God is not a man that He shall lie.
Longsuffering is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) because God’s people are constantly being developed in His image and likeness. We are training to become kings and priests to rule with Jesus in the future (Revelation 1:6), and suffering with God develops our spirit-man. Those called to lead in the Kingdom of God will often endure harsher situations and circumstances than most people. From the experiences, you will develop spiritual muscles of tolerance, restraint, forgiveness, love, patience and extraordinary compassion toward others.
The journey of ascending from ‘glory to glory’ is not for the faint of heart but it will be rewarding.
Paul came to understand the gift of suffering with Christ. He wrote: “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).
God’s power is unleashed at full strength when we become empty and heartsick. His comfort overwhelms our weary souls, and we learn about His goodness and mercy amid our brokenness. Our lungs are filled with His breath, and the Holy Spirit sustains us in ways we never thought possible.
The Lord’s love oozes out like honey and nourishes the deepest chambers of our hearts that continue to bleed. He softens all the parts that have become hardened.
We develop a strong relationship with Jesus that sometimes can only be understood in the valleys of the shadow of death. God becomes our only Source of strength.
Hannah knew the pain of longsuffering and waiting all too well. She wanted a baby more than anything else. Year after year, she asked the Lord for the promise, but God closed her womb (1 Samuel 1:5). He would open it again, but a process had to be completed.
To add insult to Hannah’s agony, she was mocked and ridiculed by people close to her. The tormenting words spewed by Peninnah punctured Hannah’s soul even more.
Hannah became a double victim – first to her circumstances, then to the treatment of those surrounding her. Instead of being encouraged and uplifted during her barrenness, people caused her great harm. Her husband Elkanah seemed insensitive to her agony, asking a series of “why” questions that likely made her feel lonelier.
Yet it was there in that brokenness that Hannah became a mighty prayer warrior.
Hannah was always in God’s eyesight. He always had a set time for her dream to come true. She continued to pray without ceasing, even while carrying a heavy heart and weakened soul.
In her deep anguish, Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life…”
(1 Samuel 1:10-11)
Hannah was honest with Father God and told the Lord she was miserable. She asked the Lord to remember her and then she made a covenant to give her son back to God. The Lord always planned to fulfill the promise because Samuel was a key part of God’s redemptive plan.
However, a new level of glory is unlocked when we partner with Jesus to bring forth what He has already predestined.
The Lord kept pushing Hannah towards purpose, giving wind to her sail even in a lowly state. She reached a point where spoken words would no longer suffice; Hannah was “praying in her heart, and her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. Eli the priest thought she was drunk” (v. 13).
Once again, Hannah was misunderstood by someone who didn’t recognize the anguish that she carried, but this was the point when God flipped the script. He turned the tide in Hannah’s favor. The Lord remembered her.
She stepped into a winning season.
It all started when Hannah told the truth about her heart condition.
“I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”
Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”
She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.
Elkanah made love to his wife, Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. So in the course of time, Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.”
Hannah eventually became the mother of Samuel, a prophet and judge who anointed both Saul and David as kings. Samuel was special from the day he was born, and he became a child of promise all because of his praying mother and merciful Heavenly Father.
Hannah reminds us of the power of a praying woman who doesn’t hurt others to achieve her dreams. She also demonstrates the importance of perseverance and commitment to the One True God. Her heartfelt words of anguish reached Heaven, and the Father acted on her behalf.
Hannah is the embodiment of Promise because God always does what He says.
PROPHETIC ENCOURAGEMENT
The Lord is speaking to someone living out Proverbs 13:12 right now: “Hope deferred makes the heart grow sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”
Jesus has heard your cries. He sees your anguish. Jesus knows how long you have been waiting. God will do what He said, even if the process is taking much longer than you ever expected. The Lord remembers you. It might feel like you’re barren right now to all the hopes and dreams the Lord Jesus gave you – but He remembers you.
It’s crucial to understand that you have not done anything wrong. God’s thoughts, plans, timing and ways are infinitely higher than we can understand on this side of Heaven. We only see in part, so faith requires that we trust in the unseen realm.
God’s goodness and mercy will collide with your life, so do not let go of the Promiser! He is the One who put the desire in your heart in the first place.
Age is not a factor with the Lord. Despite what society considers old, God can still supernaturally bring forth any promises He declares. He’s Lord over everything, including creation and science.
God has a set time to unleash the favor that will soar over your life.
Again, as in Hannah’s case, the delay was not denial. In fact, she received an exceptional child because of her willingness to endure with the Lord. She never stopped believing or praying to God.
She also demonstrated great restraint. Instead of using her words to speak back to Peninnah, she prayed to God and allowed the Lord to take care of the matter. He fought her battles. Make no mistake about it – Hannah greatly suffered for a very long time. The Bible says, “Because the LORD closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year” (1 Samuel 1:6-7).
She endured longsuffering, but God developed a woman of great character and fortitude through the pain.
Hannah named her son Samuel, “Because I asked the Lord for him.” Jesus Himself later taught the principle of “asking, seeking and knocking” to His disciples in Matthew 7:7-8. It’s a promise He guarantees.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
God rewards those who are faithful when the promise aligns with His perfect will. He will do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to his power that is at work within us” (Eph. 3:20). The onus rests on Yahweh.
Hannah’s story is unique because, unlike most miracle children in the Bible, an angel never appeared to her about the promise. Rather, she boldly stood in faith, and God heard her prayers. He rewarded her with a child who changed the lives of so many people. Samuel was anointed and special from the moment he arrived in this world.
The Lord Jesus always accelerates time for those who endure longsuffering and other hardships. The promise you birth will be handsomely rewarded by Father God.
My friend – you carry the seed of destiny within you. Even though the promise tarries, wait for the Lord because His timing is always perfect. He’s going to do extraordinary things in your life. You will be the epitome of God’s FAVOR. As you push forward into the future together, the Lord will bring you even more comfort this season. The promise will come.
When I asked the Holy Spirit what He wants you to know, He brought my attention to Proverbs 5:21, which says, “For your ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all your paths.”
The Lord Jesus ponders and examines your entire life bit by bit, step by step, hour by hour. In your darkest seasons, His love shines brighter. He delights in you. God is going to see you through – so do not give up. Someday you will hold the promise in your hands — and all the prayers, tears and anguish will have a purpose. You will look back and realize that even God’s timing was written in the stars. Everything will make sense. Through this process, you will grow extremely close with the Father.
Oftentimes, the Lord wants your purpose in Him established before the promise. We serve a God of order and He’s very intentional about every step of your life. It doesn’t always make sense with human wisdom, but we can rest firmly on Psalm 37:23 (AMP): “The steps of a [good and righteous] man are directed and established by the LORD, and He delights in his way [and blesses his path].”
God will use you to help others, and the bond you share with the Savior will become unbreakable and undeniable. Your life will be a living testimony of God’s merciful love. Those who mock you must stand back and watch what the Lord Jesus does.
Vengeance belongs to Him and God will repay you (Romans 12:19). The Bible says it brings the Lord “gladness” when He rescues His people from the hands of oppressors. He is a storm shelter for the poor, humble, and weak in spirit, “for God is with those who love him” (Psalm 14:6).
Like Hannah, there will be a reversal of circumstances in your life, and you will sing a hymn of praise that eternally reverberates through your family line. Heaven will collide with Earth.
Hannah eventually dedicated her son back to the Lord, but even then, she rejoiced greatly because she’d seen the mighty hand of the Father in her life. She had great confidence in the Lord, and her strength was renewed in masterful ways that only God could do.
The Lord gave her a new song to sing.
My friend — do not give up on the promise. God remembers you.
You, too, will sing again.
Hannah’s Prayer (1 Samuel 2:1-3, GNB)
“The LORD has filled my heart with joy; how happy I am because of what he has done! I laugh at my enemies; how joyful I am because God has helped me! No one is holy like the LORD; there is none like him, no protector like our God. Stop your loud boasting; silence your proud words. For the LORD is a God who knows, and he judges all that people do.”
