Here is a prayer for brokenness. This devotional is designed to create space for the Holy Spirit to reveal “brokenness”. The brokenness around us and in us, and to lead us into a prayer for restoration and transformation.
This is not restoration or transformation born out of our own strength…this is an act of positioning ourselves…recognizing our utter dependence on God and asking for His “Kingdom come, His will be done”. I encourage you to grab a journal and find a place of peace and solitude.
Isaiah 61:1-3 says…
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.
This is a prophecy about the Messiah, about Jesus. The one, the only one through whom freedom will come.
Jesus alone can…
“Proclaim good news to the poor”…bringing HOPE
“Bind up the broken hearted”… bringing HEALING
“Proclaim freedom to the captives”…bringing FREEDOM
“Release from darkness for the prisoners”…bringing DELIVERANCE Comfort all who mourn…bringing COMFORT
“Bestow a crown of beauty instead of ashes”….bringing RESTORATION A garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair…bringing JOY
Here are some steps for you to walk through over the next hour or so. Take your time and enjoy the Lord’s Presence.
Before you begin, focus your heart and mind and simply ask the Lord to speak and reveal Himself to you.
There is no particular order; start whenever you are ready.
Freedom/Deliverance
Jesus came to…
“Proclaim freedom to the captives”…bringing FREEDOM
“Release from darkness for the prisoners”…bringing DELIVERANCE
The word captive means someone who has been taken or carried away. In the Old Testament armies would invade and defeat their enemies often taking people captive, enslaving them.
The word prisoner means those that are bound.
- Ask the Lord…
What are the things that are holding you…holding the people around you
captive? What has enslaved you? What has enslaved them? Where are you bound? Where are they bound?
- Write some of those things down.
- Find something heavy…pick it up. Do you feel the weight, the weight of sin and brokenness, the weight of choices, of fear, of things that have been done to us? Bring those things to the Lord. He has come to deliver us, to set us free. Ask for freedom for yourself. Pray for freedom for those around you.
- Put down the heavy object, and pick up something light.
- Feel the difference…how light…shame, condemnation, addiction and pain are reduced to insignificance in His presence. Take a moment to receive the freedom…freedom from the weight.
Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me. Psalm 142:7
Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matt 11:28-30
• Pray for the Lord to do what He came to do, to set people free! Pray for salvation, strongholds to be removed. And ask the Lord to use you, to bring light to the darkness.
Healing/Comfort/Restoration
Jesus came to…
“Bind up the broken hearted”… bringing HEALING
“Comfort all who mourn”…bringing COMFORT
“Bestow a crown of beauty instead of ashes”….bringing RESTORATION
There is a lot of brokenness in this world. Brokenness in ourselves, brokenness in the people around us and the places we live.
Sometimes we are painfully aware of it, but sometimes we numb ourselves to it for survival, adapting, protecting and maneuvering to ensure further wounding is avoided. But in the process of our attempt to self protect, we create barriers to relationship – relationship with God and relationship with others. Our wounds begin to define us and we set up camp, rather than press into the healing, the comfort, the restoration that is found in Jesus.
We may even know Him and call ourselves His, but refuse to let Him into those dark difficult places…
- Ask the Lord …where is my heart broken? Where are the broken hearts around me?
- Ask the Lord …am I mourning? Are there people around me mourning?
- Ask the Lord …do I need restoration? Who needs restoration around me?
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147:3
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matt 5:4
So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, And the chewing locust, my great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you… Joel 2:25-26a
- What are the things the Lord showed you? Where are those broken places?
- Write them down in your journal.
- As you write down those things, pray for the Lord to bring beauty from ashes…and that He would create beauty from things that once seemed destroyed.
Hope/Joy
Jesus came to…
“Proclaim good news to the poor”…bringing HOPE
“A garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair”…bringing JOY
The word “poor” is translated, humble, poor, afflicted, meek. In many parts of the US the idea of poverty is a bit foreign. Most of us have never experienced literal poverty. But in a non- material sense we live in an incredibly poverty stricken place. We have abundance in so many ways and yet we are afflicted, and humbled in others. Emptiness and loneliness are at epidemic proportions in our communities.
As that emptiness deepens, and loneliness engulfs, despair takes up residence. As it makes itself at home in our hearts, we help it rearrange the furniture, we agree with the hopelessness and surrender to a new normal. Not so suddenly, we find ourselves unable to evict the mindset.
Ask the Lord – Where is there poverty in me? Where is there poverty around me?
Ask the Lord – Is there despair in me? Where is the despair around me?
Those places in you…the people the Lord brought to your heart and mind that need hope restored, that need the joy of the Lord…write those people, those prayers down and, give them to the Lord.
As you write down these people, these places of need, ask the Lord to breathe His manifest presence into each situation.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will You let Your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand. Psalm 16:9-11
Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. Lam 3:22-26
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jer 29:11
What is God saying?
Sit still before the Lord…reflecting on the prayers you have lifted up, the brokenness you have given over to Him.
What is the Lord speaking to you?
Write down what He is saying.
Thank Him for His faithfulness!
Thank God for accomplishing everything we ask!
(Be) confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Phil 1:6
For all of the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. 2Cor 1:20
This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 John 5:14
To explore more about Prayer and Intercession, check out these podcast episodes Prayer Hearing God’s Voice , Prayer Begins Here Pt 1, Prayer Begins Here Pt 2 or sign-up for Prayer Class
