Broken and Blessed

Why would anyone choose to be broken? Why would you check into a hospital and allow the surgeon to start cutting? Because you know that surgery is on of the ways you can experience healing and to be physically restored. What makes a woman willing to endure long hours of intense labor? She knows that beyond the labor there will be the joy of a new life.

So why would anyone choose brokenness? Because brokenness brings blessedness.

Brokenness is God’s requirement for maximum usefulness. The Father uses adversity to breaks our self-will and transform us into useful vessels for His kingdom. Usually when people think about facing hardship, they focus on the suffering and pain involved. But what exactly is brokenness? What is its purpose? And is there any way to avoid it and still be useful to God?

Brokenness is the Lord’s method of dealing with our self-reliance—that desire within us to act independently from Him. God wants us to bring every area of our lives into submission to His will, and He uses our trials to lead us to a point of total surrender.

In brokenness, God desires to break our self-will so that we can be fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. This means that Brokenness is not chastisement or punishment. When the Father chastens someone, He addresses a present, immediate sin. For the believer, brokenness isn’t a penalty, but an act of mercy intended to bring him to repentance. The Lord does not punish Christians. Only those who reject Him are subject to His wrath. Brokenness is about the future. The Father deals with our attitude for the purpose of conforming us to His will and making us effective ministers to others (Eph. 2:8-10).

And this is achieved through adversity, God targets the areas of self-will in our lives. He wants to break the attitudes that do not honor Him—such as self-righteousness, self-reliance, and self-centeredness, pride, ignorance, fear, worldly entanglements, unhealthy relationships, rebelliousness, and strongholds of the enemy.

Moses was broken in the desert. He spent 40 years learning to obey the Lord, before God used him to free Israel from Egyptian bondage. Christ came and He was broken to bring us the blessing of grace, mercy and power. The apostle Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” kept him from exalting himself, despite his impressive credentials. I was broken into many pieces from the lost of relationships, jobs, personal possessions and my health. And through the brokenness I found my divine purpose, destiny and fulfillment. 

We are only as useful to God as we are obedient to Him. Whether He allows difficulties to arise in our family, finances, or health, He does so out of love. When we resist brokenness, we hinder our relationship with the Lord. We delay the fulfillment of God’s will in our lives. We hurt those who are closest to us and we limit what the Father can do through our gifts and talents. We are “put on the shelf”—unused by the Lord and prevented from experiencing His blessings and future rewards. His ultimate purpose is that we become spiritually mature and effective for His kingdom.

What does God keep targeting in your life? Is it your self-reliance? If so, submit to the process of brokenness, and allow Him to control every area of your life. Let Him determine what remains and what must go. Yes, there is suffering in surrendering to the Lord, which may include physical, emotional, spiritual, and even relational pain. But the blessings on the other side of brokenness are certainly worth it!

Enter into Prayer

Dear Jesus, to compare my season of stress with You, Moses and the apostle Paul’s, there is simply no comparison. When I consider everything You and servants experienced, I have nothing to complain about. Nonetheless, Paul’s honesty and vulnerability are what I wish to imitate. 

Jesus, in the midst of everything I’d love to fix, change or eliminate, help me to be far more preoccupied with the treasure within than with the pressures of without. I pray that your all-surpassing power will be shown most dramatically through my weakness in this thorn. I surrender to your will. Your incomparable glory will be clearly revealed through my hardships, and I surrender to your ways. Your redeeming purposes will be most fully realized through my brokenness, and I surrender to you.

Though there have been seasons and will be season where throwing in the towel, finding another story, or just flat running away are certainly attractive, but I realize that I have no where to go. You alone give the words of life, the sufficient grace, and the hope of glory. May your voice be ten times louder than the complaining around me and the grumblings inside me. So With my palms up as an act of surrender, I offer freely this earthen vessel.

Father, in the coming hours and days, weeks and years, prove the wonders of your love in my midst.

I pray this prayer not just for myself but for family and friends reeling from betrayals, exhausted by chronic pain, shamed by their foolish choices, disillusioned with ministry, lonely in their marriages, enslaved by an addiction, or just flat out weary from the demands and busyness of life. In Jesus Matchless Name I pray, with expectancy, Amen.