When You Feel Broken: Letting God Fill the Cracks

When You Feel Broken: Letting God Fill the Cracks

Recently, I have been walking through a particularly difficult season.

I have been trying to carry everything—my work, my responsibilities and the needs of those around me. Somewhere along the way, I placed my own mental and physical health at the bottom of the pile. I kept pushing forward, telling myself I could manage, until eventually my body forced me to stop.

Sadly, I have felt unwell for the past three weeks. It has reminded me of a cycle I know all too well: we work until we burn out, suddenly recognise how precious our health and life are, recover—and then begin pushing ourselves all over again.

Perhaps you recognise this cycle too.

The Pressure to Be the Perfect Woman

So many of us feel that we must be the woman who can handle everything: always helping, always achieving, always moving the goalposts and rarely allowing ourselves to rest.

We carry other people’s responsibilities. We measure our worth through our productivity. We keep striving, even when our hearts and bodies are asking us to slow down.

I have realised that I have been pushing businesses in which my heart is no longer fully present. I have been placing too much of my identity in my work and attempting to carry everything in my own strength.

It has led me to ask some important questions:

What does success truly mean?

What makes me genuinely happy?

Am I following where God is leading, or am I trying to control everything myself?

When I become still enough to ask these questions, I can loosen my grip and allow God to take the steering wheel. He knows my heart and the gifts He has placed within me. He knows how those gifts can be used to serve and encourage others.

God Is the Gold

The Japanese art of kintsugi repairs broken pottery using gold. Its cracks are not disguised or treated as something shameful. Instead, they become part of its story—making the restored piece distinctive and beautiful.

This offers such a powerful picture of what God can do with our brokenness.

When we feel cracked, lost or unable to hold everything together, God meets us there. He does not look at our broken places with disappointment. He lovingly fills the gaps, brings the pieces together and creates something beautiful from what we thought had been ruined.

God is the gold running through our cracks.

Our struggles do not make us less valuable. They can become the places through which His love, strength and grace shine most clearly.

Fully Known and Deeply Loved

Psalm 139 reminds us that God knows us completely. He knows when we sit and when we rise. He understands our thoughts, sees every part of our journey and formed us with love and intention.

We are His creation.

Our value is not determined by how much we achieve, how productive we are or how perfectly we appear to manage life. We are precious because we belong to Him.

Galatians 2:20 reminds us that we are not called to live entirely through our own strength—Christ lives within us. Yet recently, I have been doing exactly the opposite: striving, pushing and attempting to carry everything alone.

Jesus is gently reminding me that I can surrender. I can rest. I can allow His strength to hold me when mine has run out.

A Different Way Forward

My prayer is that Pilates with Jesus will help us break this cycle together.

I want it to be a place where women can step away from the pressure to be perfect. A place to move gently, become still, lay down our burdens and remember who we are in Christ.

A place where we pray for one another, encourage one another and become lights for one another.

Rest is not weakness. Slowing down is not failure. Looking after the body and mind God has entrusted to us is not selfish.

Sometimes, stopping is an act of surrender. It is our way of saying:

“God, I cannot carry all of this alone. I need You.”

Affirmations for Slowing Down

Take a quiet moment to breathe and speak these truths over yourself:

• I am fully known and deeply loved by God.

• I do not need to earn my worth through productivity.

• I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

• I am allowed to pause and rest.

• Resting does not make me lazy or less valuable.

• I can release the burdens that were never mine to carry.

• God meets me in my weakness with His strength.

• My broken places do not diminish my beauty or purpose.

• I do not have to have everything figured out.

• Christ lives within me, and I do not walk alone.

• I can trust God to guide my next step.

• I am held, restored and made new through His grace.

A Moment for Reflection

You may wish to journal or pray through these questions:

1. What responsibilities am I carrying that may not belong to me?

2. Where have I connected my worth to my work or productivity?

3. What might God be inviting me to release?

4. What would true rest look like for me this week?

5. How might I see myself differently if I looked through God’s eyes?

6. Where have I noticed God’s “gold” restoring the broken places in my life?

A Prayer

Father God,

Thank You that You know us completely and love us without condition. Forgive us for the times we try to carry everything alone or measure our value by what we achieve.

Meet us in the places where we feel tired, lost or broken. Help us release the burdens we were never meant to carry. Fill every crack with Your grace, restore what has been worn down and remind us that Your strength is made visible in our weakness.

Teach us to rest without guilt, receive Your love and see ourselves as You see us. Guide our next steps and help us trust You with the path ahead.

May we become women who support one another, pray for one another and reflect the light of Jesus wherever we go.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

If you are feeling lost or broken today, please remember: you are not beyond repair, you are not alone and you have not been forgotten.

God is with you. God is for you. God is still writing your story.