Brokenness (4)

Brokenness (4)

‘THE SACRIFICES OF GOD ARE A BROKEN SPIRIT’ (PSALM 51 V 17 NIV*)

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 v 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, forever. Amen’ (Matthew 6 v 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!

*NIV  New International Bible Version

*NAS  New American Standard Bible

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