The Unbroken Christian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jesus talked a lot about losing, taking up our cross, denying ourselves, and laying down our lives. These are the fruits of brokenness before God. It\u2019s\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/frankviola\/theunbrokenchristian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Unbroken Christian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jesus talked a lot about losing, taking up our cross, denying ourselves, and laying down our lives. These are the fruits of brokenness before God. 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{"id":1552,"date":"2021-01-31T05:31:10","date_gmt":"2021-01-31T09:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/frankviola\/?p=1552"},"modified":"2021-01-06T12:37:35","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T16:37:35","slug":"theunbrokenchristian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/frankviola\/theunbrokenchristian\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unbroken Christian"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Jesus talked a lot about losing, taking up our cross, denying ourselves, and laying down our lives.<\/p>\n

These are the fruits of brokenness before God.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to spot a Christian in ministry who isn\u2019t broken. Unbroken people don\u2019t know how to lay their lives down and lose. They only know how to try to win.<\/p>\n

If they\u2019re criticized, they retaliate.<\/p>\n

If they\u2019re attacked, they return fire. If misunderstood, they defend in anger.<\/p>\n

They are capable of doing all sorts of damage to others in order to save their own ministries and keep their reputations.<\/p>\n

On the contrary, people who have been broken by the hand of God know how to turn the other cheek. They know how to go the second mile. They know how to give their coats when asked for their shirts. They know how to speak well of those who misrepresent them. They know how to return good for evil.<\/p>\n

They know how to lose.<\/p>\n

And in so doing, they exhibit the Spirit of the Lamb and allow God to win.<\/p>\n

In the words of E. Stanley Jones, \u201cThe God I find in Christ is a God who overcomes evil with good, hate by love, and the world by a cross.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, it is through the wounding and the breaking we experience that the life of Christ can be released through us.<\/p>\n

And that is where the secret of fruit bearing lies.<\/p>\n

Adapted from <\/em>God\u2019s Favorite Place on Earth<\/em><\/a>.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"