Brokenness

'The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.' PSALM 51:17"
A world that celebrates success doesn't see value in broken things. But God brings beauty out of brokenness. For a plant to rise from the soil the seed must be broken. For a baby chick to experience larger life the shell must be broken. Even a thoroughbred horse must be broken; it must learn to respond to the tug of the rein and the sound of the master's voice.
Getting the idea?
After a humbling encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road, Paul re-evaluates all the religious activity he once boasted about and calls it 'dung' (Philippians 3:8). And you don't brag about dung, you're repulsed by it.
Brokenness is the work of God by which He strips us of self-sufficiency so that the character of Christ may shine through us. Now don't misunderstand; being broken doesn't necessarily mean experiencing some tragedy. Many people suffer tragedy without drawing closer to God or even acknowledging Him. Indeed, the same sunshine that melts the butter hardens the clay. The issue in brokenness is not so much our circumstances, but our response. What is God trying to teach us? True brokenness is when He strips us of self-sufficiency to the extent that we've no strength left to fix ourselves. When God blocks every exit we try to take and we come to see that He alone is our answer, we make a life changing discovery. 'And what's that?' you ask. When God is all you have - God is all you need! Bottom line: God's power is reserved for those who have given up trying to do it in their own strength or to accomplish it for their own ends!
Paul writes: 'Now may...God...sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord' (1 Thessalonians 5:23 NAS).
This word 'sanctify' means to be 'set apart,' to be used exclusively for God's purposes. Paul describes it as 'the high calling of God' (Philippians 3:14). And it happens from the inside out! Notice, our fleshly body comes last in order of transformation for a very simple reason. The problem with a thief isn't his hands, it's in his mind or spirit, which tells him stealing is okay. His mind tells his hands what to do. So if you transform his spirit his hands will follow suit. Otherwise you can handcuff him and take him off to jail, but he's still a thief inside. Too many of us want to get victory over bodily sins without being truly transformed within. But God starts with our spirit because that's the part of our being that makes us conscious of God; that 'connects' with Him. When God sets us free in our spirit, then our emotions and our body begin to fall in line. If you're a parent you know how differently your children respond to discipline. One child will collapse in tears, whereas another will stand up and defy you. God will do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to break us of our self-sufficiency so that the life of Jesus can be demonstrated through us. And we determine how long the process takes, by our submission or resistance. Paul prayed, 'Lord, what do You want me to do?' (Acts 9:6 NKJV). Today, make that your prayer!

Sometimes God allows us to hit the bottom in order to discover that He's the rock at the bottom. Gideon faced an army of 135,000 troops with just 32,000 men. And 22,000 of them left the battlefield and went home when he offered them the chance. Do the maths. Gideon's thinking, 'There's no way we can win!' Then God explains: 'The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, 'My own power has delivered me' (Judges 7:2 NAS). There it is again, the age-old battle of ego that we all fight daily. It's why the Lord's Prayer ends with: 'Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen' (Matthew 6:13). Where does our power come from? God! Who should the glory for our accomplishments go to? God! How long does this arrangement last? Forever! God had to break Jacob of self-sufficiency so the 'Israel' within him could come out. Sometimes God has to take you down before He can raise you up. Moses was called the meekest man on earth. But it took forty years of living as a shepherd in the wilderness to detoxify him of pride and get him submitted to God. Only then was he ready to stand before Pharaoh and perform miracles that demonstrated God's power - and vindicated Moses! Brokenness doesn't mean being a wimp, suffering from an inferiority complex or having a case of low self-esteem. No, brokenness means praying, 'Lord, if this job is going to get done, and done right, You're going to have to do it through me. So my trust is in You.'

We don't always know the reason for our trials, but God revealed to Paul the reason for his 'thorn in the flesh.' It was to keep him from being 'exalted' (See 2 Corinthians 12:7). Success can be intoxicating, and intoxicated people aren't known for being too bright or trustworthy! What happens when you get a thorn in your flesh? It hurts. And you'll let everything else go while you focus on removing it. Three times Paul prayed for God to remove the thorn, but God had another plan. You see, God is at His strongest in us when we are at our weakest. When Paul discovered that God's power in his life was tied to the thorn that afflicted him, he responded, 'I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities...For whenever I am weak, then I am strong' (2 Corinthians 12:10 NRS). In other words, 'If it's for my good, bring it on, Lord!' If you've a thorny person in your life from whom you've prayed to be delivered and it hasn't happened, maybe God wants you to experience His grace and power through dealing with that person. But you won't experience this until you move from pain to praise.
The Bible speaks about 'the sacrifice of praise to God' (Hebrews 13:15). A sacrifice means that something has to die on somebody's altar. So if you want to experience God's grace and power in your life, you must be willing to die to self-interest, ego, and independence.
There's nothing wrong with asking God to remove your thorn. But when your prayer for deliverance turns to praise, you're on your way to power, because God is giving you grace.
Word for Today © 2009: This devotional is produced by UCB, free of charge available for the UK and Republic of Ireland at UCB Operations Centre, Westport Road, Burslem, Stoke on Trent, ST6 4JF. .