"Too broken to be used."
That is a label we tend to put on ourselves... but Jesus doesn't seem to think that way.
I think about Paul, who was first known as Saul. Before he was preaching the gospel, writing letters to churches, and being used by God in such a powerful way, he was fighting against Jesus and persecuting His people. Then Jesus confronted him directly on the road to Damascus and asked, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
In other words, why are you fighting me?
That is a pretty broken place to be. And yet, that moment was not the end of Paul's story. It became the moment Jesus stepped in, showed mercy, and started changing everything.
That gives me a lot of hope, because I know I am going to fall short. I know there are places in my life where I need mercy. And if I start trying to decide whether I am qualified to be used by God, I will probably always come up with reasons why I am not.
But I do not qualify myself. Jesus does.
He is the One who forgives. He is the One who restores. He is the One who takes people with a past and gives them a purpose. No one is beyond His mercy, and no one is too broken for Him to redeem.
So if you have been carrying that thought lately, that you are too broken, too far gone, or too disqualified for God to use, maybe Psalm 51:1 can be your prayer today: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions."