The First Circle Represents God’s Design
I believe God has a perfect design for every area of our lives. God has a plan for our families, our marriages, our sex lives, our money, our work life, and even our entertainment. God has a design for every area of our lives.
The Run Away Man
The problem is that something inside us wants to do things our own way instead of following God’s plan. Far too often, we run away from God’s perfect design. The Bible has a word to describe running away from God’s design and that word is “sin.”
The Second Circle Represents Brokenness
When people sin against God’s design, they end up in a place of brokenness. This is tragic because brokenness really hurts. The brokenness of human life is real and is something that every person can relate to. Whether you go to church every Sunday or whether you have never gone to church your entire life, you probably know what it is like to experience brokenness either because of your own choices or because of the choices of someone who has hurt you. Brokenness can come from bad relationships or from something internal. People get addicted, depressed, discouraged, worried, they feel used, or they feel empty.
The Crooked Lines
When people find themselves in a place of brokenness, they look for a way to fix themselves. We start looking for a solution for the pain we feel. We go on a search for a way to numb the pain, to escape the depressed feeling, and to get out of the place of brokenness. The problem is that we just get more and more broken. The feeling of brokenness lets us know that something needs to change. The feeling of being messed up and frustrated and disgusted with life drives us to look for change. But after we try different ways to escape the brokenness, we quickly realize that we can’t change ourselves, and we start looking for someone to help us change.
The Praying Man
The Bible actually has a word for change and the Bible word for change is the word “repent.” When we come to a point where we realize we cannot change ourselves, we realize we need God’s help. This feeling drives us to our knees to ask God to help us change.
The Third Circle Represents God’s Plan of Salvation
The Bible has a solution for the problem of brokenness and its called, “The Gospel.” Gospel is a Bible word that means “good news.” This is the good news, that God loves us so much that when He sees us in our brokenness he does not leave us there. Two thousand years ago, He sent His own Son Jesus to come and live a perfect life. Jesus never departed from God’s perfect design. Jesus never sinned. He loved people. He cared about people. He healed people who were hurting, and He spoke up for people who were broken.
But one day, when Jesus was about 33 years old, some evil men crucified Him to a cross. They put nails in His hands and feet and a crown of thorns on His head. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, God put the sins of the whole world on Jesus, including your sins and my sins. His body was broken so that our broken lives could be fixed.
Jesus died on the cross, but He did not stay dead. The good news is that after three days, Jesus rose from the dead. This miracle resurrection proved that Jesus is the Son of God and that He has the power to forgive our sins.
The Rejoicing Man
So, if we truly want to experience change, we have to believe in Jesus. The Bible word for believing in Jesus is the word “faith.” We have to believe that Jesus rose from the dead and we have to put our faith and trust in Him. By faith, we believe that Jesus is our Savior and that He can rescue us from our brokenness.
When we turn away from our sins and turn to Jesus, God does a miracle in our lives. He restores us to His original plan for our lives and we become whole. When we cry out to Jesus, He fixes everything that is broken and gives us the ability to pursue God’s perfect design for our lives.
Even if you are one thousand steps away from God, it is only one step back. No matter what you have done or what mistake you have made or how broken your life is, God is waiting for you. Once you become a believer is Jesus, you come full circle all the back to God’s perfect design for your life.
Please, use this illustration to share “good news” with the people around you! The Bible has a word for a person who shares “good news” and that word is “evangelist.” That’s what I am and what you can be too.
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Source: Jimmy Scroggins, lead pastor of the First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach, Florida developed this as a witnessing tool for his congregation.
