Broken Spirit Ingredient in the Recipe of a Merry Heart Medicine / Mrs Angela Forester

Mrs Angela Forester

Youth Pastor's Wife

Twin Cities Baptist Church

Flint, MI

“Broken Spirit Ingredient in the Recipe of a Merry Heart Medicine”

Proverbs 17:22 KJV “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”

   Wow. Just reading that verse, I feel like we can have just that as a devotional...so powerful in and of itself! But...I like to talk, so I’m gonna let God talk through me!
   So we all read this verse...of COURSE as written, as it should be! BUT after that, for this particular verse...what if we were to study sections (a) and (b) switched? We’ll touch on the merry heart...but let’s touch on the “broken spirit” aspect first...we, as woman, are very emotional people...not knocking it! God MADE US that way...He made us so that the hurt of others, it’s the hurt of our own,  often times (our kiddos, church family, physical family, etc.) The Bible even says in Galatians 6:2 that we are to bear one another’s burdens...and boy we better because it’s the law of Christ! Compassion, love, not just sympathizing but adding and embracing empathy with that, as well!
  God says to us in this verse that the merry heart is like the medicine....so how can the broken spirit be an ingredient in that? They are two TOTALLY opposite things! Well, what IS a broken spirit? It’s a circumstance, it’s an issue of the heart; something happened that broke us down (loss of a loved one, discord with fellow brethren in Christ, issue at home, depression, financial heartache, physical ailment, etc.). Something so strong and powerful that literally broke you.
  I have been there, and, as many other people know, as well, it’s a HARD place to get out of. You might think “God can’t use this broken heart/spirit” or “I just keep getting deeper and deeper and I don’t see a way out!”....WAIT! I have a secret for you...ready? —> THIS IS WHERE GOD NEEDS YOU to come back to Him <—
   James 4:6 says “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Broken spirits ARE going to happen! God also says in James 4:9&10, “James 4:9-10 “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. (10) Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” Ladies....it’s BIBLICAL to find yourself with a broken spirit!!!! (Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”) This is the exact place where you are able to HUMBLE YOURSELF before God and he will give you the GRACE you need and lift you up!
   A broken spirit is the trying of your faith (again, in James)...it is working your patience! That circumstance brings you to the honesty and humility you need to seek God! A broken spirit is Biblical, allowing yourself to STAY broken is sin!
   So how in the word is it FIXED?! Well, Psalm 139:23 & 24 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: (24) And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” #1 ingredient: Recognize the broken spirit...remember, God doesn’t despise it! But staying there, He does. #2 ingredient: allow and SEEK God that He might search your heart! But remember Psalm 46:10, seek God, but “Be still and know that I am God.”...you can’t allow Him to speak to you and search you’re heart if you aren’t silent and still to let Him do His work! Be. Still......#3 ingredient: pray as David did (with a meaningful heart!) in Psalm 51:8-12, “Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. (9) Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. (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.”
   David prayed for the JOY he can only get from God to be restored! But he also prayed for a CLEAN heart (a clean bill of health!!). God is faithful! Always! He’ll pull out the broken spirit and return back the JOY of your Salvation! What a great feeling!! To know that your broken spirit itself isn’t a sin, it’s a place where God can use you, hold you, help you and pull you back up into His work with a ready and willing heart!
   These (3) ingredients...they are the recipe to the merry heart that “doeth good like a medicine”. Take the medicine from God! And get your clean bill of health from Him to return to the joy He gives to His children!