I am always asking God to give me wisdom about relationships. One night while praying God flashed a quick vision before my eyes. It was a chain with a broken link. At the time, I couldn't understand the meaning but I knew the revelation would come soon. Three days ago he gave me the answer and here is it: A relationship is only as strong as its weakest link. In essence; a relationship is only as strong as its weakest partner.  

I looked up some definitions regarding "weak-link" and here are a few I found:

• A chain is made of links. It will hold things, but if anything pulls on the chain, it will break at the weakest link, making the whole chain that weak.
  
• No matter how strong the chain is, its only as strong as its weakest link, the rest is going to suffer due to the poor performance of the weakest part.
• No matter how strong the links on the chain are, if you have one link that is a bit worn down, or was made badly, that one is going to break first. 
• When you pull a chain at both ends it will break where ever the weakest link is. 
  

The last definition reveals the true danger of a weak link. Our enemy, Satan is not so dumb and he can spot our weak links a mile away. He is very good at pulling relationships at both ends until that weak link finally breaks. He pulls through stress, temptation. anger and a host of other things. Broken relationships are his specialty. 

So we have some  homework. This is not an assignment to cast a judgmental eye towards ourselves and others. This is an opportunity for God to heal what is weak or broken in our life and the lives of those around us. Lets ask God to reveal to us the weak links that we need to PRAY over. The broken walls, the areas in our life where we need self control. Because, after all, he is our redeemer - and EVERYTHING is redeemable under the blood of Jesus! 

God wants to prepare us for our future marriage so that when evil attacks, the links will remain strong. Allow God this time to prepare you so your marriage will last a lifetime. What is YOUR weak link?

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 1 Corinthian 1:27

Paul knew all about weak and foolish things when he wrote this verse. He had spent many years persecuting and trying to destroy the church. But one day, while on his way to imprison more Christians, Paul had a life-altering encounter with Jesus. As a changed man, Paul, the man who tried to destroy the church, suddenly became God's instrument to build the church. Paul - the church planter. Funny isn't it. He must have looked on his earlier years and thought, "Oh, what an ignorant fool I was."

I was meditating on this a few weeks ago and in my conversation with God I said, "Well, I was an ignorant fool in my marriage. If anyone did their share to destroy marriage it was me. In fact, I pretty much made a mockery of marriage. Oh, what an ignorant fool I was..." 

I then heard His gentle but unmistakable voice say, "That's exactly why I'm now going to use you to BUILD marriages."

"Ummm...God, that might not be such a good idea. There are people who probably think I should be that LAST person to talk about marriage. God? Did you hear me? I really think I'm NOT the one you want speaking on that subject." 

Crickets...

So, imagine my surprise when a week later a pastor approaches me and says, "God has made it clear to me in several ways that I am supposed to ask you to speak at our marriage retreat next weekend." Yes, a marriage retreat....to BUILD marriages. Trust me, I'm as shocked as anyone. But I'm also in awe and amazement at our God who uses the weak and foolish to shame the strong. So this weekend I'm speaking at a marriage retreat.

And here is what is so wonderful - as I been studying and praying I have rediscovered my profound love for marriage! Marriage is the most beautiful and poignant picture of Jesus and his bride. Marriage is new life. It's miraculous. It's oneness. It's mystical. Marriage is REALLY important to God and as it is becoming more and more extinct, he is adamant about protecting it. Oh, what a fool I was that I didn't see this when I was married. Oh, how weak and utterly foolish I was...but oh, how good God is to use my failings for His glory. That's why they call him "The Redeemer." That's why I love Him.

Job 5:18  For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal.

Marilee sat on the examining table as Dr. Grace carefully ran his hands along the lower part of her leg. She had broken that leg four years earlier but was still experiencing pain that caused her to limp. After a few more moments of probing, Dr. Grace said, "I'm going to have to re-break the bone."

"Re-break my leg?" Marilee gasped as her memory revisited the pain of the first break. "Is that really necessary? Will it be painful?" 

Dr Grace replied with compassion, "When your leg was broken, your bones didn't fuse back together correctly and your leg healed wrong. If I don't re-break it and allow it to heal properly this time, you will experience pain for the rest of your life and your leg will never work the way it's supposed to. Yes, the re-break will be painful, but I will help you through it. I do this often and I have a wonderful success rate."
  
Do you see a parallel here between Marilee's broken leg and your broken heart? A long time ago your heart was broken. In your efforts to suppress the pain you ran to any source of healing that you could get; another relationship, music, hobbies or whatever took your mind off of the brokenness. But God, the creator of your heart, could see that it didn't heal correctly and for that reason, it doesn't work quite right. It limps...and it experiences pain often. So he allowed your heart to be re-broken. Yes, he allowed it! And he even ORDERED it. And now he is personally tending to your healing. Psalm 147:3 says, "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." 

Healing is painful. But in God's miraculous and upside-down kingdom, pain is healing. As you feel that pain, to heal correctly, you must run to him and him only. You can not run to anyone else or anything else. He is your doctor and he knows how to heal you. He is also your Redeemer and he knows how to redeem you. He loves to redeem! He loves to rebuild! He repairs, restores, recreates and yes, He even re-breaks. He does this all because his loving desire is for your heart to work properly. Why? Because He intends for you to use it again. There are more people ahead in your future that God wants you to love with the purest and most sincere love - His love. He must teach you His ways and His love. Not the way you learned in the past, a NEW way of loving. Let him un-break your heart. You still have a lifetime of love ahead of you.