Spiritual First Aid Manual
Mending What’s Broken
Every human being is broken. We’re all broken people. And that’s because we are all sinners because of the fall humanity took back in the Garden of Eden.
At the start of creation we were brand new, God said let us make man in our image and according to our likeness, but sin entered and broke what God had created. The fall broke us. We were in the beginning whole and complete, but sin broke us where now we’re nothing more than a shell of our former selves.
Because of that everything in our lives is broken. We’re broken physically and spiritually and sin has devastated our bodies where now sickness, disease, and death await us all.
In fact earth itself is broken because of sin, and is groaning for its redemption through all these natural disasters. (Romans 8:22)
Broken can also best describes our marriages and families, not to mention our spirit and heart. It’s all broken because of sin and the fall of man.
But God is in the healing business and wants to mend what’s broken.
Listen to what Job said, “My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished, the grave is ready for me.” (Job 17:1 NKJV)
Now, that’s not an encouraging statement, but though the prophet Isaiah, this is what is said about Jesus’ purpose.
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor…He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.” (Isaiah 61:3 NKJV)
It is this very Scripture that Jesus quoted about Himself and how God had sent Him to heal what was broken within us. (Luke 4:18)
How does God go about this mending process? He does so by getting personally involved in our lives.
King David said,
“The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18 NIV)
But these breaks are not always a bad thing. Sometimes God breaks us so that He can remake us, so our lives can mend the right way.
Nathan the prophet came to David and told him of God’s displeasure when he sinned in his adulterous affair with Bathsheba.
Because of the consequences of his actions, David cried out,
“Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones which You have broken rejoice.” (Psalm 51:8 NKJV)
And then David went on to say,
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17 NKJV)
This breaking process is so that God can remake us into His image and likeness as seen in what the Lord told Jeremiah in how He, the Lord, is the potter and we are the clay.
“And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.” (Jeremiah 18:4 NKJV)
As the Potter, God has the power over our lives to break and remake us into vessels of honor, that is, to remake our lives into that which will give Him glory.
The Trinity Effect
When it comes to healing, believers and the church far too often look only at the spiritual man, thinking that a spiritual healing will heal what’s important while leaving the rest of the person’s life broken.
When God created us in the beginning He said,
“Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26a NKJV)
Since we’ve been made in the image and likeness of God, and since God is a trinity, that is, three personages in one, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are likewise made up of three parts, each one vital and indispensible to the others.
There’s our body, or the physical part of our make up; our soul, or the emotional part of our make up; and our spirit, or the spiritual part of our make up.
This trinity is likewise seen in our bones. Our bones are made up of three parts. There’s the hard outer part of the bone where minerals are stored, the inner yellow marrow where fat is stored, and the inner red marrow that produces red blood cells.
Therefore, to heal broken bones all three of these components that make up the bone must heal.
Our healing, or mending what’s broken, must likewise be in every area of our lives, physical, emotional, and spiritual. You might say this is the trinity effect of the healing process.
How Do We Mend What’s Broken?
Through a Healthy Diet of God’s Word
Mending what’s broken begins with eating the right foods.
When a bone fractured or breaks, immediate medical attention is required to keep the bone immobilized. After it has been immobilized then natural remedies, such as foods and vitamins, should be taken to help heal what’s broken.
There are both good foods and bad.
The good foods are high in calcium, vitamins D, K, C, and Zinc, along with lean protein. Bad foods consist of alcohol, salt, sugar, refined grains, and caffeine. By eating right we can help heal and mend what has been broken.[1]
We are told that we also need a healthy balance of the milk and meat of God’s word, or the good food.
The writer of Hebrews talks about our need of a healthy diet of God’s word, and while he rips the church for remaining on a diet of milk and baby food, these are still needed to help us grow and mature where we can then partake of more solid foods in order to become skilled in knowing right from wrong. (Hebrews 5:12-14)
Earlier in his letter, the writer of Hebrews provides an analogy that shows us how useful and powerful God’s word is in the healing process and mending what’s broken.
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12 NKJV)
God’s word is living and powerful. Like a scalpel in the hands of a skillful surgeon, it’s cuts through the philosophies and thoughts of man that are filled with contradictions and lies. It gets to the heart and the spirit of God’s will and way for our lives.
Literally it’s alive and will pierce our hearts and touch our souls to heal what’s broken and change the course of our lives.
In his letter to Timothy, Paul said,
“All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV)
The key is that it’s God’s word and not just another religious book, nor is it the philosophies and thoughts of man filled with contradictions and lies, which is the bad food that prevents a true healing from taking place.
Therefore God’s word is good medicine and is beneficial to healing, that is, it’s practical and relevant.
Donald Whitney wrote in his book, “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life:”
“No spiritual discipline is more important than the intake of God’s word. Nothing can substitute for it. There is simply no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of God’s word.”[2]
By Being Still
Breaks and fractures require treatment, which may be as simple as rest, or as invasive as surgery. The most common type treatment is immobilization. These include splints, braces, casts, slings, and other devises like pins and plates that orthopedic surgeons attaché to our bones to keep them in place.
One procedure is called a fracture reduction. This is used in order to better align the broken bone.
Generally bone fracture treatment consists of a doctor reducing (pushing) displaced bones back into place, stabilizing its position and then waiting for the bone's natural healing process to take place.
Sometimes we’re so busy with life, not to mention the problems and difficulties life presents that we are not still long enough for God to do His healing work within us.
But this is exactly the prescription God gives to bring salvation and healing.
When confronting the Red Sea before them, along with the Egyptian army that was behind, the people started to complain and told Moses it was better if he had just left them as slaves in Egypt.
Moses responded by saying,
“Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.” (Exodus 14:13 NKJV)
Sometimes it’s best to be still and keep quiet and let the Lord do His healing work, mending what is broken. In fact, the quieter we become the better able we will be to hear God’s prescription through His word for our hurt and pain.
This is God’s prescription for all of us.
In Psalm 46:10 the Lord said, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
Finally it’s when we are still that we will be able to find out what God is doing, and instead of asking God to mend what’s broken in our lives, maybe we should start asking God what’s breaking His heart. In other words, to help heal what has been broken, we need to find out what we’re doing that breaks the heart of God.
And so the first thing that helps mend what’s broken is having that healthy diet of God’s word and then to be still. The third things is to…
Get More Blood To What’s Broken
Without blood there is no life or healing.
Blood is what delivers essential nutrients and oxygen to our body’s cells. Blood also helps transport carbon dioxide and other waste material from our cells along with infections.
We can't live without blood. It aids in keeping the body functioning, and it’s what brings healing and sustains life.
When my wife broke her foot, the orthopedic doctor told her that it would take a while for it to heal because the bone she broke is the only bone in the body that has the lease amount of blood flowing through it.
To mend what’s broken we need to get more of the blood of Jesus to it.
One of the great needs of our day is that of healing, which isn’t just physical in nature, but also emotional and spiritual, and for the healing of all three to take place we must go to the ultimate healer, Jesus, and the blood He provided.
Concerning the coming Messiah, the prophet Isaiah said,
“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5 NKJV)
In 1 Peter 2:24 it says, “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed.”
If there had been no blood in those stripes, there would be no healing.
The word “healed” translated from both Hebrew and Greek can mean either spiritual or physical healing. And while it’s clear from the above passages that it’s a spiritual healing that’s being referred to, we cannot ignore the other aspects of our healing.
You see, in the verse preceding what Isaiah said, it says that the Messiah has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, which is our emotional healing. (Isaiah 53:4)
In Matthew’s gospel it says,
“They brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: ‘He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.’” (Matthew 8:16-17)
Not only does God forgive all our sins through the blood of Christ, but He also He heals us emotionally and physically as well. Therefore, to mend what is broken, whether it is physical, emotional, or spiritual, it’s the blood that Jesus shed upon the cross that brings healing.
It Takes Time to Heal
Time is required to mend what has been broken, and for a full healing to take place.
Fractures take from several weeks to several months to heal, depending upon
The extent of the injury,
The type of bone that is broken, the age of the person, and
How well we follow our doctor's advice.
We have to be careful not to move the affected part of the body just because the pain has stopped. Often times the pain is gone before the break has been healed sufficiently to handle normal everyday activities.
Further, various diseases, like osteoporosis, breaks down the bone tissue that also may cause a longer healing time.
Therefore sufficient time needs to be given where we limit our movement until the bone is fully healed.
Such time is needed for our spiritual healing as well; therefore we must learn the lesson of waiting upon the Lord.
“Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31 NKJV)
If we want to fully mend what has been broken we must learn to wait upon the Lord, and then He will give us the strength to move forward even while we’re broken.
But we have to learn to wait in the right way. To wait is not passive; rather it is active. Waiting is an action.
The best way I know to understand this concept is to think about those who serve us in our favorite restaurant. They are called waiters. They wait upon us, that is, they serve us. They don’t wait to be served; rather they serve.
To wait upon the Lord while we heal means to serve in whatever capacity is needed. It is then in our service to others that we in fact serve God and our healing takes place.
Conclusion
Let me conclude by talking about how we can best prevent these breaks from occurring.
Eating right with a diet rich in calcium and vitamin D will help promote bone strength, and when strength-bearing exercises are added to our daily regime, we’re then taking the necessary steps to keep our bones strong.
To prevent breaks in our lives we need to get into God’s word and let God’s word get into us. Job said, “I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” (Job 23:12 NKJV)
And to keep ourselves strong we need to do that which is right in accordance with God’s word.
Paul said, “For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8 NKJV)
Then there is our need to be flexible and not so rigid in keeping worldly rules and regulations.
As we grow and reach maturity, our bones have pretty much stopped growing and become fixed and rigid. In other words, they don’t have the give in them that was there when we were young. And so when too much pressure is applied they break.
To counter such rigidity there’s a saying that has helped me, and that is, “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken.” We need to keep ourselves flexible to hear God’s voice to guide our way so that the pressure of this world doesn’t break us.
God wants to mend what has been broken in our lives, and while it may feel like no one cares, God does care and desires to heal.
Listen to what He says, “‘But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the LORD, ‘because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares.’” (Jeremiah 30:17 NIV)
And while He’s talking to Israel here, God does care about all of us as well, because like Israel we are His people and He will restore. That’s His word and His promise.
[1] “How to Heal Broken Bones Fast,” by Dr. Josh Axe, https://draxe.com/heal-broken-bones/
[2] Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, 1991, Navpress, Colorado Springs, CO, pg. 24
