Broken for Blessing!

By Hazel Holland

"And I will give them one heart [a new heart] and I will put a new spirit within them; and I will take the stony [unnaturally hardened] heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh [sensitive and responsive to the touch of their God]." Ezekiel 11:19 (Amplified Bible)

I can't take the credit for this wonderful pencil drawing of an English fishing village scene, but I wish I could.  All I did was add a little color to it. 

Actually my father, Jeff Brown, drew it back in 1997 when he began drawing for the first time.  He was 80 at the time, and now he's 94!  He's not been drawing lately, but he's still going strong!  Yeah dad!

As I looked at this drawing that my father so beautifully did, I asked the Holy Spirit to show me what He wanted me to see in this picturesque English fishing village with the cobblestone street.  Immediately I knew that He wanted me to share with you how the walls of my heart became hardened like stone because of unforgiveness.  My heart was like the stone buildings and cobblestone street in this picture.

As a child my body would have appeared to be physically present with my family, but so often my heart was removed from their presence.  Over the years a kind of deadening numbness set in, because I had unknowingly closed the door of my heart to my family in order to protect it from further pain.

But God didn't design my heart or your heart to function this way.  Just as our physical hearts need an inflow as well as an outflow of lifeblood in both directions or we will die, so our spiritual hearts need to both receive of His love, and let it flow out of us to others, or we will die!

"Love one another as I have loved you" then becomes a life-giving command of Jesus to us as we realize that God created us to be receivers as well as givers of His love and grace! It's how He made us.  But we can't give of His love and grace to others if we haven't first received His love and grace for ourselves.

As I was pondering these thoughts the Lord reminded me of an experience I had back in 1997 a couple of months after my father drew this picture...  

I was returning home from a church one Sunday evening when I decided to stop by the local El Pollo Loco restaurant and get a spicy black bean burrito.  Back in 1997 this restaurant closed earlier on Sundays, but I didn't realize that when I walked up to the "closed" door to get a burrito.

After I entered the restaurant I noticed that there was no sign of food anywhere, and the waitresses had their backs to me as they busily cleaned up the kitchen.  Suddenly one of them became aware of my presence and jumped as she turned around.   

“How did you get in here?” she asked abruptly. 

“I just walked through the door.” I responded calmly, surprised by such a question.

“You couldn’t have! I locked that door forty-five minutes ago!"

Having said that, she went out the back door of the restaurant and came around to check the front door.  Sure enough it was locked tight.  The manager had to let her in.  As they walked by me they had this incredulous look of awe mixed with confusion on their faces. 

“You must have some kind of supernatural powers!” they both exclaimed.

“No!  I’m a Christian and I serve a supernatural God!” I responded.

Right at that moment, I sensed God's Spirit nudging me to give the young lady who had locked that door... a word from Him.

 

“God is going to open locked doors in your life.  He’s heard the cry of your heart and He wants you to know how much He loves you!”

She was speechless...  She awkwardly thanked me and then went about her business of helping clean up the restaurant, while another waitress insisted on fixing me a burrito, and then I left.

As I walked out the previously locked door, I noticed that it was “power locked.”  There was no way I could have walked through that door “unaided.”  I looked around to see if there were any little rocks that could have somehow prevented it from fully closing.  There were none.  

Immediately I sensed the presence of the Spirit as He began to speak to my heart and tell me that He was going to open locked doors in my life.  Tears filled my eyes and I began to weep as I experienced the tender love in the Father’s heart for me. 

But little did I realize at the time that unforgiveness was going to be one of those locked doors that He would supernaturally open.  As the blazing light from the Cross pierced my stony heart, the walls began to come down, and the cobblestones were broken apart...

I had been broken for blessing.  I had been freed to forgive so that I could become a blessing to others.  If you haven't already been broken by His love and grace, will you let God's Spirit begin to bring down the stony walls within your heart now? 

He wants to break you for blessing, too.  He wants you to receive of His love and grace, and then let it flow out of your new heart to others.♥ 

( It seems that when we have been victims of spiritual abuse... especially as children... we learn to close the door of our hearts at an early age in order to protect ourselves from further abuse...  But God knows how to open our hearts to the rays of His love.♥)