Broken, Not Crushed

Not long ago, I wrote a number of poems, most of which pertained to my faith in Christ in some way. I thought I would share another one of those poems with you.

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BROKEN, NOT CRUSHED
© by Mark Pettigrew

My heart, once whole, is now broken
as on the altar I lay.
Searching, I look to the heavens,
not knowing quite what to say.

Prayer, once a ritual, fails me.
Nothing I say can suffice.
All that I know is my vices
grip me, as if in a vise.

Freedom is mine for the taking,
freedom from death and from sin.
I long to know His forgiveness.
I long to be born again.

Asking for mercy is painful.
This, I must freely admit.
But there are worse things than “painful”.
Now I’ve gone too far to quit.

Long have I carried these burdens,
long have I suffered this pain.
Tears are now flowing like fountains,
cov’ring this altar like rain.

Jesus is beckoning to me,
offering all that I need.
So I kneel down at the altar,
confessing every bad deed.

Now I am broken and humbled.
Now restoration is mine.
Joy is the fruit of repentance, and of His mercy divine.

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Many people fear that if they humble themselves before God, confess their sins and ask for forgiveness, it will be a painful experience. They're right. It's never fun or easy to acknowledge that one has failed.

But it isn't a question of whether or not we will acknowledge our sins and our failures, it's just a question of when and how we will do so.

Will we acknowledge our sins willingly, in order to receive the blessings of God's forgiveness? Or will we wait until Judgment Day, when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? The pain of confronting our sins and dealing with them now is nothing compared with how painful it will be to do so if we wait until we're forced to deal with those issues.

Don't put things off any longer. Give your heart to Jesus so that you can know the joy of salvation.

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To download additional Christ-centered poems I've written (stored online in the form of PDF files which can be downloaded from a public SkyDrive folder), visit this link, then select the poem in which you have an interest, and then click the Download button.