{"id":989,"date":"2025-09-08T18:45:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T18:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carolinebongo.com\/blog\/?p=989"},"modified":"2025-09-08T18:45:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T18:45:15","slug":"%f0%9f%8c%bf-broken-yet-whole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carolinebongo.com\/blog\/%f0%9f%8c%bf-broken-yet-whole\/","title":{"rendered":"\ud83c\udf3f Broken Yet Whole:"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Finding Strength in God<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a time I thought I knew it all\u2014even God. I believed I had Him figured out. But in His love as a Father, He allowed me to fail. He let me face test after test <\/a>and fall short until I finally realized: I am broken, and only He can make me whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I used to hate that brokenness. I hated feeling like something was wrong with me\u2014as my daughter once put it, like a piece of malfunctioned software straight from the manufacturer. I even thought heaven should issue a recall, because I was aiming for perfection yet I messed every single time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was taught that if I did everything right, life would add up like a formula. Follow the recipe, and out comes the perfect product. So I devoured motivational books that promised formulas for success. But the more I tried to apply those formulas, the harder I failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I didn\u2019t understand then was that God was after something deeper. As wonderful as He is, He desired a broken spirit and a contrite heart. He didn\u2019t need my perfection\u2014He wanted my surrender. I had to learn that only He is perfect, and only He can make me whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then I discovered something even greater: He had already done it. From the foundations of the world, and again 2,000 years ago at Calvary, the work was finished. I stopped trusting in myself, a broken vessel, and started trusting in the God who delights in using broken people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s when He began to show me who He is\u2014and how His life in me becomes my true identity. Now I understand: in my weakness, His strength is made manifest<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God is not a formula; it\u2019s a relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcf8 Photo courtesy of a dear friend!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcad Reflection Prompt:<\/strong>
Have you ever felt \u201cbroken\u201d like me\u2014like something inside you wasn\u2019t enough? What did God teach you through that season?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u270d\ufe0f Share your thoughts or testimony in the comments. You never know who might be encouraged by your story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finding Strength in God There was a time I thought I knew it all\u2014even God. I believed I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-scriptures-and-stories","article","has-background","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","has-post-media","thumbnail-"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/carolinebongo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/car-church.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinebongo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinebongo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinebongo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinebongo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinebongo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carolinebongo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":991,"href":"https:\/\/carolinebongo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions\/991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinebongo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinebongo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinebongo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinebongo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}