The phrase, "the best is yet to come," has been around probably before I was born. There is no clear indication of who created this phrase, but Tony Bennet recorded a song called, "The best is yet to come" in1958 and it gained traction. When someone says the best is yet to come, they are saying that whatever is happening in your life now, it will be surpassed by something better and amazing in your future.
The Lord told Isaiah that the Israelites would be oppressed again, as they had been as slaves in Egypt before the Exodus. They would cry to God and again He would hear them. The past miracles were nothing compared to what God would do for His people. Listen to the words of God, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland" (Isaiah 43:18-19). In other words, "the best is yet to come."
God's people have a history of being part of something that has been broken. Even today there are broken marriages, broken friendships, and yes, even broken fellowships. These are just a few of the everyday experiences of life. But out of brokenness comes perseverance and blessings.
The brokenness of life is not always the end, but a means to get us where we are to be, as an opportunity for "a new beginning." Remember the story of the prodigal son? He left home with an attitude, only to find himself broken, standing there in a hog pen. It was there in that hog pen that he came to his senses and headed home, where he was restored.
When I was growing up, we were poor and we didn't have a television, so if we wanted to watch television, we had to walk over to our grandmother's house. If my uncles were at home, more than likely they would be watching some western program or maybe sports. They loved to watch westerns. Whatever the cowboys roped while on their horses, that animal continued to struggle, just to get free. The stallions, bulls, are whatever they were, were beautiful, strong, and healthy, but they were of no use to the new owner until they were broken.
Today we are able to see too much moral decay in our society. The deterioration of Christian values and our need to witness the down fall of the home and family is causing us to lose that which is so precious to us, our children. Rev. Mark Pluimer wrote an article called Family Brokenness and he said, "The damage of families is well known: Children are scarred by parental neglect and abuse. Parents struggle to raise unruly kids. Spouses carry the wounds of hurtful words spoken, lies told, intimacy withheld, and anger unleashed. Many marriages end in divorce, wounding all members of the family system." Little is being said or done because we are sewing seeds on ground that has not been broken, but it is full of weeds and thorns. The opportunity to come back to God is open, but first we must be willing to be broken. God can't use you until you are broken.
The spiritual applications to what I am trying to say are many, but the one that comes to mind first of all, is there can be no blessing without effort and no harvest without plowing. An egg can't become an omelet without being broken. The foundation of a house can't be laid unto the lot is broken. Before the grain can be planted for a crop, the field must be broken. Before there can be joy there must be weeping. The joy that floods the mother's heart at the sound of the first cry of her newborn baby is preceded by tears and pain. Even at birth, the baby must be broken away from its mother. As we journey down life's pathways, our course is shattered with brokenness. The history of every human's life is a history of brokenness.
Think of the memories that often comes back from the distant past, we trace again the tedious journey that began years ago. Like misty shadows from the past they take form and materialize again, and then we relive the days of sorrow over the broken things of life. We may think about the toys we so enjoyed and laughed over and then once broken they are cast aside with the stain of child-like tears. How early in life the breaking process begins. Then as we grew older, we experience broken hopes, shattered dreams, unfulfilled ideas and promises. After getting married, we think that our home with be filled with peace and happiness, but found that the increase of years, have increased stress and weeping, over brokenness.
Perhaps your health, the threat of foreclosure, the lost of jobs, during this distressful time, has shown you the devastation of brokenness. The quietness and serenity we so sought after, has been replaced with the unexpected. I can tell you that the "the brokenness of life" is common and no one escapes, so we must count it all joy and believe in our hearts, "the best is yet to come."
All alone life's pathway, fragment of things that were fashioned into dream of happiness, turned to incredible disappointments in life, such as, you didn't get the job you applied for, you didn't receive the award that you were hoping for, you were hoping to get married by a certain age and didn't, someone let you down, someone owes you money and refuse to pay you. As days went by there were more brokenness, and as the twilight of life came, we tattered to the broken place of rest. What sadness in all of this. Brokenness, emotional and spiritual, can mean a lot of things and it suggests accidents and calamities, and there are a lot of different ways that we could define the meaning of brokenness. But all tragedies are known unto God, He is wiser, more knowledgeable, and more understanding about what is happening in our lives and why. Scripture says, "I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up [that which was] broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment" (Ezekiel 34:16).
There is no brokenness that God does not know about, whether it is broken homes, broken dreams, broken hearts, broken vows, broken hopes, broken lives, or broken fellowship. God knows all things, from the beginning to the end, and He is never surprised about anything. He knows the blueprint on every broken piece in the lives of His children. Each piece of our brokenness will fit in the eternal portrait and masterpiece, Jesus will present them all to the Father. Remember the words of Paul, "All things work together for the good to them that love God. To them who are the called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).
Our God only makes what He can break, and breaks only what He wants to make. If you are being broken today, God is working in you. Paul in writing to the Philippians states, "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6).
Each time I have passed through the dark vale of disappointment and have cried in agony, God has led me out into the sunlight, out of the straits, into a larger place. The things we thought were our greatest trials and tragedies, in hindsight, turned out to be God's deliverance in our lives. The brokenness of life for the Christian is never lost, when we are in the ark of safety. God will turn the disappointments into unforeseen dreams and happiness. For remember, the best is yet to come.
A broken friendship caused David to cry out, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away" (Psalms 55:6). Moses was broken away from his biological mother, only to end up in Pharaoh's court. The Apostle Paul was broken by our Lord Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road, then God sent him to offer His grace to the gentiles. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in South Africa for 27 years, only to be released to become the president of that country. Dr. King found himself in a prison cell for civil rights, and it was there that he wrote some of his greatest works. Out of this brokenness, we will become that light on that hill drawing others so that we may minister to them through our testimony of faith. Always remember, if life brings it to you, God is going to bring you through it. Let your brokenness be a new beginning, because "the best is yet to come."
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