Message: "What's the Point of this Struggle?" - 03/05/2025 - Lent - Ash Wednesday

 

"What’s the Point of This Struggle?"

Psalm 51:1-17; Isaiah 58:1-12

In the series "From Brokenness to Wholeness: A Journey of Healing and Hope"

Tonight, we gather on Ash Wednesday, a day marked by ashes and reflection. It is a time to pause, to be honest with ourselves, and to face the reality of our brokenness. The ashes we will wear on our foreheads are a sign of both our mortality—"from dust you are and to dust you will return"—and the brokenness we carry inside. But if we're honest, we don't need ashes to remind us that life is full of struggles. Many of us walked in tonight already carrying burdens that feel too heavy.

Maybe you are weighed down by regrets—things you wish you had done differently. Or perhaps you feel stuck in patterns you can't seem to break. Some of us carry wounds no one else can see, but they are real and they hurt. And in the middle of all that, we might wonder: What’s the point of this struggle? Does anything good ever come from the broken places in our lives?

If you’ve ever asked those questions, you are not alone. The people of God have asked them for generations. In Psalm 51, we hear the raw words of King David, who was dealing with the weight of his own failure. After confronting his sin, he doesn’t hide or pretend. Instead, he cries out to God: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." David understands a truth that we all need to remember—we cannot fix ourselves. But God can. And God desires to meet us in our brokenness, not to condemn us, but to restore us.

In Isaiah 58, the prophet speaks to a people who are going through the motions of religion, but their hearts are far from God. They fast, they pray, but they wonder why nothing changes. And God responds, saying, "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free?" God isn’t interested in empty rituals. God wants transformation—for us and for the world around us.

Here is the good news: our struggles are not the end of the story. God does the best work in broken places. When we bring our regrets to Jesus, our failures, and our pain, He doesn’t leave us there. He begins the work of making us whole. This is what Lent is about—offering God the pieces of our lives and trusting Him to create something beautiful.

So, how do we begin again? Psalm 51 gives us a starting place: honesty. David doesn’t hide his sin or his pain. He brings it all to God and asks for a new heart. Tonight, you are invited to do the same. Whatever is heavy on your heart, bring it to God. There is nothing too broken for Him to heal. Nothing too lost for Him to find. Nothing too stained that He cannot make clean.

As you receive the ashes tonight, let them be a reminder not just of your brokenness, but of God’s power to make you whole. This is not the end of your story. God is still working, still restoring, still making beauty from ashes.

May this Lent be a time when you discover that even in the struggle, God is bringing something new to life within you. Amen.