Why God uses Broken People and How God Wants to Use Your Story for Eternity

She gathered her things and headed out the door. “Surely, no one will be there at this time,” she reassured herself. She had heard the snickering and seen the piercing glances and couldn’t handle it on this day.

The dust gathering on her feet couldn’t compare to the dirt her heart had collected throughout the years. Peeling her eyes from the ground and looking up, she sees a figure sitting in the distance. Heart beating faster, she approaches her destination, head down, eyes focused on the ground beneath her.

“Will you give me a drink?” the man asked. He was physically tired; she was spiritually parched.

While most Jews did everything they could to avoid the region of Samaria, Jesus walked right through it and stopped. Not only did He stop, but He also approached a Samaritan woman living in sin (John 4:1-42). A Samaritan, considered by Jews as impure. A woman, considered less than valuable, living an impure life.

A vessel many would have tossed away as trash, He valued as a treasure. Why does God use broken people and why does your story matters for eternity?

Why God Uses Broken People

Because His love for her – for us – runs deeper than any cultural difference, social standing, and certainly our sinful nature. His desire for this Samaritan woman and us is to lovingly mend our broken cracks, fill us up with Him, and use us to pour out life onto others.

The Japanese call this art of repairing broken vessels, Kintsugi. The cracks of brokenness are mended with precious gold but not concealed. Made whole but not covered. Filled with gold, these vessels become more valuable than ever before. The cracks become stronger, shine brighter. They can be filled with the purpose for which they were created and displayed for glory.

Only our Healer has perfected this art. His hands of love gently mend the cracks with comfort more precious than gold. Made whole, He takes our brokenness and transforms it into the most valuable part of our story. Then, and only then, can we be filled with the purpose for which we were made and sent out to display His glory.

After all, what better way is there to showcase His dominion over darkness, His grace over the grave, His redemption over the ruins? Throughout Scripture, broken people are the vessels God chose to use for His redemptive plan.

Moses murdered. Jacob deceived. Rahab was a prostitute. Jonah ran from God in disobedience. David was a murderous adulterer. And Paul, the prominent church leader, first entered the scene as a Christian persecutor.

In the heavenly realm, it is through our weakness – not in spite of it – His strength has the power to shine radiantly.

• How do you see God’s strength in your weakness?
• What about your story do you feel God can use?
• How does your personal story display God’s grace, freedom, and redemption?

Are you allowing your past to limit His work?

I relate so well to her response in John 4:9, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” Oh, how many times I’ve thought that same thing.

You are God, and I am a sinful person.

How can you ask me for …

How can you use me for …

If they knew what I’ve done…

The truth is, He does know what you and I have done, yet He desires to use these broken vessels in unimaginable ways. God’s purpose for your future is far bigger than your past or failures. So glance in the rearview mirror, but don’t gaze. You are a new creation, with the road to your predestined work paved by your past.

• Have you limited God’s ability to use you because of your past?
• So often, we gaze in the rearview mirror allowing shame and regret to keep us from the promises of God. Are you gazing or glancing?
• Are you willingly allowing Him to fill the potholes of your past, paving a smooth path for others?

If you have a hard time believing you are enough through Christ, be sure to read this post, download the free resource, and work through the prayer prompts.

Empty wells we chase leave us unsatisfied, always wanting more.

“But, sir, this well is deep.” she reminded Him in John 4:11. Boy, have my wells run deep! Although I’ve been saved for many years, I have always struggled with acceptance. Fear of rejection ran deep, keeping me from pursuing His greater calling. Deep wells of rejection and pursuit of acceptance were the driving force for much of my life. But God, in His great mercy, reached into the pit of my empty well and drew out life.

I don’t know if you’re chasing empty wells, if you feel like you’ve fallen into a well, or your well has run dry, but I do know the One who can restore you. He is the spring of living water—the quench to your thirst. While a well requires you to work for it, springs flow with no work, no effort on your part.

But, like the tender request of Christ in verse 16, “Go call your husband and come back,” He is calling us to address these empty and inferior avenues. Familiar with her broken past, He addressed the very weakness of her well not in an attempt to pronounce condemnation but rather to clean and clear the murky way.

• Have difficult seasons left you searching for water from the wrong Spring?
• Are you attempting to fill pain or longings with empty wells?
• Where do you need Jesus to fill your deep wells of pain, suffering, and longing?

When we don’t understand why God uses broken people and how your story matters for eternity, we all end up chasing other avenues of value. If you’re struggling with negative emotions and feelings, be sure to read this post on “I Feel, But God Says,” download the free resource, and meditate on God’s truth.

What lies do you believe about your past?

“Are you greater than our father, Jacob?” she asked Jesus. I, too, have struggled with this question for years.

Are you greater than my history? My past? My pain?

Shame has a slithering way of trying to define you. Yet God’s ultimate desire – and gift – is for the pain to refine us into the jewels He sees, not redefine us as the world sees. Not as the enemy taunts. Friend, it’s time to walk out of the shackles of yesterday’s shame.

• Where do you need to walk out of the shackles of shame?
• Evaluate any lies you still believe about your past. Truly, this is groundbreaking work.
• Ask God to dig up any past hindrances that stand in the way of freedom.

Why God uses Broken People and How Your Story Matters for Eternity

Stories are an integral part of life from an early age. Through pain, excitement, fear, and perspective, stories are the universal way we relate to others. They engage our emotions, connect the past with the present, teach lessons, and infuse inspiration. Simply put, stories have the power to transform lives. The story God is writing through your life was not meant to be kept under lock and key. God uses broken people to make a difference for eternity.

• Why do you think Jesus often used parables to teach?
• Recall a story that has inspired you to action. What made it powerful?
• How can your story teach, inspire, connect, and engage?

Why are you called to share your story?

For much of my Christian life, I lived in two separate worlds. Haunted by what I had done, tainted in my view of God’s grace, and wounded through my childhood encounter with “church people,” I kept my secrets under lock and key. I loved Jesus with all my heart and faithfully served my church, all the while keeping a distance from the people God strategically placed in my path. Though I was free from the shackles of sin, I was chained to the shame.

A story filled with a dysfunctional childhood, a young runaway, drugs, drinking, 14-year old marriage, a high-school dropout, abandoned 7.5 months pregnant, 16-year old mama, divorced before the legal age of marriage, abusive relationships, close overdose, deep thoughts of suicide, and even deeper thoughts of a worthless life.

Yes, that was me. Jesus, rich in mercy, went out of His way to approach and initiate His love for me. He asked me for a drink from my deep, empty well and replaced it with a life-giving Spring.

Like the woman at the well, propelled by the power of Christ’s love, we leave our old life and tell of His new life anchored in grace and forgiveness. Similar to this woman’s testimony, yours has the power to transform towns with the Gospel truth of transformation (John 4:39-42). Your story matters for eternity!

• Has God placed the desire to share your testimony with someone?
• Is there a ministry that could use your redemptive story?
• With an open heart, spend time in prayer seeking His path, way, and purpose.

What will you do?

Filled with the joy of being fully known and wildly loved, she left her empty jars to share the fullness of Him who knew everything and loved her anyway (John 4:28-29). What about you? What thoughts, feelings, and pursuits will you leave behind to declare for someone:

Come and see the man who saw your unformed body and declared, “It is good.” Come and see the man who sees your crying and holds each tear in his hand. Come and see the man who feels your loneliness and says, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.” Come and see the man who knows your brokenness and declares, “I am near to the crushed and bind up their wounds.” Come and see the man who hears your anxious heart and whispers, “Be still and know that I am God.” Come and see the man who took your chains and nailed them to the cross to set you – the captive – free.

Come and see this Man, the Messiah, the Lover of your soul, Deliverer of your freedom. Come…

I hope you now see why God uses broken people and how your story matters for eternity! Be sure to follow along on Pinterest for links to other great Christian bloggers.