Devotions from Fil Anderson’s book. Breaking the Rules

How wonderful it is when we can take off our masks and not have to jump through any more hoops .. just be accepted as we are. Pretending drains every ounce of our integrity and it never really stays secret.  God is never fooled. It is both humbling and freeing to acknowledge there is nothing we can do that reaches beyond the appearance of things. Only Jesus has the power and resources needed to change what’s on the inside of us and help us live from the heart.

When the author stopped being afraid of being himself and came out of hiding, then he could experience the love his heart longed for. He could let himself be known. He struggled a lot with anger and felt like anger is a signal of what is going on beneath the surface. He said it is a G.I.F.T. ,indicating guilt, inferiority, fear, and trauma.  When he learned to use the gift of anger to know himself more fully, he could then step more fully into his true self. Accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is really the starting point of our living with Jesus, not because he will mend our brokenness, but because we then stop seeking perfection. WE can instead seek the One who is present in the brokenness of our lives.  Let us be done with frantic striving to achieve intimacy with God and open ourselves up to receive God’s gift of intimacy.

Devotions from Fil Anderson’s book, Breaking the Rules

We are all deeply flawed and broken, and there are no exceptions.  If we deny our brokenness it can lead to additions, and destruction. Too often we edit ourselves so that we don’t know the person we have become. In the process we forget our true identity as beloved daughters and sons of God.  Dare we to believe that our brokenness can become a wellspring of insight and wisdom and strength instead?  Are we willing each day to bring our true self into the light of Jesus?  Let us stop fooling others by appearing to have our act all together.  “If we really believe the gospel we proclaim, we’ll be honest about our own beauty and brokenness, and the beautiful broken One will make Himself known to our neighbors through the chinks in our armor – and in theirs”.  Isn’t it amazing that God can use our brokenness, reflected in our failures, and disappointments to reach out to the hurting people who surround us? Sharing our struggles can actually help others.. And yes, God breaks us where we need to be broken so that we’re able to heal and become stronger and more authentic.  May our brokenness help us to grow!

Devotions from Fil   Anderson’s book, Breaking the Rules

“God has broken into our brokenness to find us, yet there is no guarantee that God will paste our messy, fractured life back together in the way we want Him to. To the contrary, brokenness is the key that unlocks the life we long for.”

When we have cracks in our lives, it is the very way the light gets into our dark and messy lives. They are also the way the light shines out of us to other people. So whenever we cover the cracks of our lives, we cover up the light that shines through them. When grapes and grain are crushed there is wine and bread. In our lives if we are not broken, there will not be the deep communion with God. The life we desire and the future God wants us to have is most likely hidden in our biggest predicaments, our worst failures, and our dreadful disappointments.  Brokenness, more than any other force, has the power to mold our character into the unique shape that God wants for us.  Accepting the reality of our broken life is the beginning point in us becoming the person God created us to become. The Bible is full of stories of broken people and Jesus called His followers to come out of hiding and stop pretending.  Let us remember that it is in our brokenness that His power flows into us and transforms our lives.

Devotions on Brokenness from Fil Anderson’s book, Breaking the Rules

Henri Nouwen said,” Nobody escapes being wounded. We are all wounded people, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually.  The main question is not ‘How can we hide our wounds?’ so we don’t have to be embarrassed , but ‘How can we put our woundedness in the service of others?’  When our wounds cease to be a source of shame, and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers.”
We are all broken people living together in a broken world.  If we bury our pain and sadness deep inside, it will simmer and stew and gnaw at our peace and joy. And in the process we become more broken and evidences of our hidden brokenness will seep through and leave its mark on all of life.

Jesus was at ease with broken people but unlike him we often condemn those whose lives are messy, broken, and out of control. Jesus never distanced himself from people’s pain and was open and receptive to those the religious people had cast aside. Perhaps it is because those whose hearts were broken were willing to let Him inside. Those who already felt righteous were so full of themselves that even the Gospel had little effect on them.

“The only cure for our brokenness is to stop playing charades, acknowledge our own and each other’s brokenness, and become united by the only One who was broken in order to make us whole.”

Devotions based on Fil Andersons book Breaking the Rules

Jesus encountered religious people who were caught up trying to be the gatekeepers of the truth and wound up being self-righteous rather than genuinely righteous. Some today use religion for their own personal agendas and end up reflecting their own personal prejudices and practices. They presume to know how Jesus would think and do and get disappointed when He doesn’t do it their way.  But He is mysterious and unpredictable. He often turned things upside down.  He shocked people who thought they had God in their pockets.  Instead of a God who they thought was predictable and quick to judge, He showed himself to be unpredictable, gracious and forgiving. He is impossible to control! He breaks all social etiquette in relating to people. He connects with people that others disregard
Some today who claim to be followers of Jesus alienate others by their fundamentalist bullying, never listening but giving their “right views” etc. But none of us are in the position to judge another and know what is in the heart of another.

We live our lives more authentically and confess our faith with greater integrity when we openly confess our uncertainty.  Faith is all about trust not certainty. His thoughts and ways are different than ours. Let’s not presume we know what God would do in every situation for He is divine. May our focus shift from ourselves to God, sensing His grace in our lives.  As we are in intimate union with Him we will know more what to say and what to do in our daily lives..

Devotions from Fil Anderson’s book, Breaking the Rules

Has our religion given us rules, systems and formulas to live by?  Does it give us a god who is obligated to provide the things we want if we hold up our end of the bargain by believing and going the required things? Some of our habits and churchy routines that we think is building a bridge to God, may instead be erecting a wall between us and Him. God is interested in our hearts and wants a relationship with us where He is the giver and we are the receiver.  He wants us to KNOW Him, not fix our selves up to impress Him or win Him over. We can’t mend our ways and achieve a relationship with Him by keeping all the impossible rules and being very, very good!   He invites us to come to Him, to walk with Him, to keep company with Him. We can give up all our masks and drop all our disguises with Him.  In the story of the prodigal the father welcomes his wayward son home even before the son could recite his plea for forgiveness. His unconditional love was lavished on his son. We are his beloved and let us stop running and follow Him and  become our real selves. There is a huge difference between religion and an authentic life with God. Let us live from our hearts, not our heads, from the inside out instead of the outside in!

Devotions based on book by Fil Anderson “Breaking the Rules”

The author was worn out with religious strivings and rule keeping that left him with guilt when he failed. His religion was characterized by a code of requirements and activities that were deemed necessary to gain good standing with God. He felt like he was God’s biggest disappointment when he failed.  But he traded his life of performance for intimacy with God and is convinced that rules are unnecessary when love guides our hearts. Like Augustine said, “ Love and do what you please.”  Jesus never made rule breaking a worthy goal in and of itself, He made clear the point that the rule keeping is pointless if it’s not an expression of something deeper. The author embraced his brokenness and allowed God’s power to flow and transform his life, which led him in the way to freedom.  As we give up striving to fix ourselves, we find that the cracks in our fragmented lives will become illuminated with the power of God’s love that shines through into the lives of others. Jesus came to call those who knew they were sinners, not those that think they are righteous. As we find the courage to confess our fears and insecurities, we will fall into the depths of God’s love for us. Let us quit trusting in our own ability to live for God, and simply trust in Him instead!

Devotions from Henri Nouwen’s book, The Inner Voice of Love

 We all face choices daily if we will choose for God or for our own doubting self.  We know the right choice but our emotions and feelings may suggest we choose the self-rejecting way. The root choice is to trust at all times that God is with us and will give us what we need most. Our emotions might say we haven’t changed at all.  But God says He loves us and is with us and He wants us to experience the joy of His presence.  He wants to give us a new heart and a new spirit that we may speak with His mouth, see with His eyes, hear with His ears, touch with His hands. He wants our full trust and that we move toward the Light. We can think ourselves into depression, talk ourselves into low self-esteem, or we can think, speak, and act in truth.   Let us not be distracted by our anxious emotions . What is of God will last.  He began something new in us and He wants to bring it to completion.  Our future depends on how we decide to remember our past. Remember we are loved and we are held safe!