Popular Christian speaker Angela Thomas addresses students at convocation

Dynamic Christian speaker and best-selling author Angela Thomas always aspired to be “the best little Jesus girl God ever had” — but one divorce later, the mother of four wondered if God could use her at all.

“I can’t even begin to give you the words for how broken life became for me,” she said in a Friday convocation message for Liberty students, including her daughter, Taylor, now a freshman at LU.

Thomas said there were times when she would cry out to God, asking what He could do with a woman like her. Eventually she found the answer and her strength in the Lord, and part of that answer is in Matthew Chapter 5.

Turning to the passage in her Bible, Thomas reminded students of the Beatitudes Jesus preached about — being poor in spirit, mourning, hungry and meek. She described what the scene might have been like as Jesus gazed at the crowd while preaching His sermon.

“He saw the truth of how they came. He saw their broken lives and their broken dreams and their broken families, and he saw the truth of what was inside of them,” she said. “And Jesus so tenderly says to them ‘I see your broken spirit, and I’m not afraid of it.’”

A person who is broken in spirit and persecuted and kneeling at the foot of Jesus can truly be a beautiful sight to God if they will give their burdens to Him and receive His comfort, she said.

“And so when your soul screams out, I am thirsty, I call that place ‘the empty cup of your soul.’ Ephesians teaches us that the only answer for your emptiness is the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s the living water of who He is,” she said.

No person, plan or activity can fill you the way Jesus can, she added.

“God says to us in Ephesians you will not be made whole apart from the love of God,” she told students. “That guy you kind of like over there in that English class, maybe he can spit in your cup — but he cannot fill you up and make you whole.”

Angela Thomas is the author of “My Single Mom Life: Stories and Practical Lessons for Your Journey.” She is scheduled to speak at the Extraordinary Women Conference at Liberty University’s Vines Center this weekend.