God Uses Broken People: 33 People God Used Who Were Broken, Flawed, and Seemingly Unqualified Misfits

In this book, author and Breakaway Outreach founder Jimmy Larche shares thirty-three stories of biblical characters God used despite their brokenness, weaknesses, and failures.

Introduction to God Uses Broken People

Kintsugi is a 500-year-old Japanese art with an interesting philosophy. In kintsugi, broken pottery is valued as a treasure rather than a piece of trash. The art treats breakage and repair as part of the esteemed history of an object—something of a redemptive beauty—rather than something to disguise, cover up, or replace altogether. That’s why in Japan, people will pay big money for the elegance and aesthetic appeal of “golden joinery,” the kintsugi method of mending a vessel after it has been fractured.

The brokenness of our past is an integral part of our unique story, and God’s glorious art of making beautiful things out of broken pieces.

Abraham’s brokenness could be seen in the apparent biological flaw of being too old for God to use. Timothy’s brokenness could be seen in the opposite—being timid in the face of people who thought he was too young for God to use. Peter’s brokenness was exposed in his temperament, his impulsive behaviors, and his rash words at times. The brokenness of Ruth and Naomi was felt in the grief of widowhood. Hagar’s brokenness was rooted in a love triangle manifesting itself in jealousy, bitterness, and rejection. Hosea’s broken marriage was an embarrassing adulterous object lesson for an entire nation. Jephthah’s mother was a prostitute. Samson had a real problem with women and revenge. Noah got drunk… after doing something heroic for God. Joseph, well he came from a dysfunctional family that would’ve been typecast for a Netflix drama involving parental favoritism, sibling rivalry, and betrayal. It’s all in the number one bestseller of all time—The Holy Bible.

Each of these characters are a picture of kintsugi—the way God views and values broken people, uses them for His glory, and redeems their stories for other broken people like you and me to be inspired with hope. Broken people are a treasure to God, and He has proven that throughout the ages.

Think about how Jesus restored dignity to a woman caught in adultery and was on the verge of being condemned to death by a legalist mob (John 8). Think about how Jesus showed value to a tax collector named Zacchaeus (Luke 19), whose political affiliation would’ve made him a first century “deplorable,” or how the Son of God told a guilty criminal hanging on the cross next to him, “Today, you shall be with me in paradise” (Luke 23).

What all these broken people—sinners—had in common was the grace that Jesus offered them. This grace is a gift that could only be afforded because Jesus took the wages of their sin upon himself when He was crucified. He paid in full the punishment for their sins. And not theirs only, but also yours and mine.

Jesus “gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Galatians 1:4). He “redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (Galatians 3:13). Jesus is “the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). And “for our sake [God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” 2 Corinthians 5:21. Christ “himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

God is faithful to confront those things that are paralyzing us—our doubts, our self-pity, our failures, our fears, our regrets, and all that debilitating shame that screams inside of us that we are not worthy of His love or healing. The truth is, Christ is absolutely “worthy” of every last ounce of God’s favor. He lived a sinless life in the flesh as the divine Son of God. He was the only “lamb” worthy to take away the sins of the world because He was the only sinless person to ever step into a human body. He passed every earthly test of temptation with flying colors, took our sins upon himself when he died on the cross, was raised to life again on the third day for our triumphant justification, and today is seated at the right hand of the Father, ever making intercession for you and me. When God investigates our flawed and broken lives He doesn’t see our track record, He looks at the track record of Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). It is on this merit alone, nothing less than Christ’s atonement and sufficiency in us, that God reconciles us to Himself and includes us in the greater story of redemption He is writing in the world today.

In Hebrews 12, we see another metaphor used for the broken people that God uses in the world to accomplish His glory—a race. Hebrews 12:2 says that we should be “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

It was in the previous chapter, Hebrews 11, that the writer penned a lengthy list of flawed, yet faithful people who gave their lives for the glory of God and lived for the pleasure of His approval despite their brokenness. After recounting these examples of faith, the author of Hebrews transitions with this: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1).

Here, faithful believers are pictured as being in a race. We can look at the examples that have gone before us and be inspired, or as Paul writes in Romans 15:4-6, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The people in Hebrews 11 are the great “cloud of witnesses” mentioned in Hebrews 12:1. The imagery suggests that they are the ones surrounding us and cheering us on in our “race” in life. In order for us to “run” effectively, we must keep our eyes on the ultimate example of perseverance—JESUS. As runners in the race of life, we must not become distracted or entangled by the peripheral lures of this age. We must fix our eyes on Jesus, looking to Him as the “founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). We must run toward Him with all our might, in the promise that we will be conformed to His image.

Jesus is the “pioneer” of our faith, the one who blazed the trail and made a way into the Holy of Holies so that the rest of us could follow into God’s presence (Hebrews 10:19–20). Jesus is also the “perfecter” of our faith—He is the one who brings it to completion. He didn’t just begin something in us, He is faithful to finish it. “And I am sure of this,” wrote Paul to the believers at Philippi, “that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

It is fitting to think of our race as the modern-day Paralympic Games. As runners in the kingdom of God, we all have our disabilities. We bear in our bodies hurts that have injured us in the past. Some of us have been maimed by the messy side of relationships. Some have been damaged by addictions, abuse, or broken families. Others have had their bodies splintered with mental health struggles or struck by untold suffering. Some have been impaired by loss and grief. There are still real dangers along the way, but we must press on toward the finish line.

If you have blown it, you must remember that “great cloud of witnesses” pulling for your comeback. When you fail, you must keep rising. In dealing with discouragement, you must continually get your eyes back on Jesus. When facing setbacks, you must persevere in faith. Your race is not over… until you are no longer here. The fact that you are still here means that you still have a race to run, no matter how many times you have fallen. Get back up. Be resilient. Get back to running. If God will never give up on you, then neither should you.

This book, written in devotional format with application questions at the end of each devo, is intended to encourage you in your race and to grow your faith as you run.