In Brokenness - Christ’s Commission Fellowship

In Brokenness - Christ’s Commission Fellowship

Truth be told, we don’t want to be broken. We’d rather appear strong, sure, and dependable, to our families, friends, to other people, and even to God. We’d like to take charge and maintain the course of our lives by our own capacities and sheer know-how. As popular poetry would claim, it is better to be the captain of our own souls.

Choosing to stray down the path of self-sufficiency when we are God’s children is a dangerous proposition. Only through a close and intimate walk with God can we be strong and sure in our direction in life, and so when we decide to strike out for ourselves, God is willing to break us to remind us that we can do nothing without Him (Jn 15:5).

Nowhere do we get a clear picture of spiritual benefits of brokenness than in Jacob’s life story. We know that Jacob is one of the forefathers of the Jewish nation. He is very revered in that when Israelites make a reference to Yahweh, the God of heaven, they call Him “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”. He is among the highly-honored patriarchs of the Jewish nation, and one of the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11.

Yet, did you know that Jacob himself did not start out living righteously in front of God to begin with? His very name means “supplanter”, “deceiver”, or “manipulator”. Both of them were prophesied to be the ancestors of upcoming nations, yet despite the great blessing on them, his shrewd character was already on display the moment he came out of his mother’s womb: he grabbed his twin brother Esau’s heel and held on to it (Gen 25:6).

Because of his dubious nature, Jacob became a rampant schemer, and even tried to bless himself by buying God’s blessing. Through trickery, he compelled his older brother to sell his birthright to him and got the firstborn blessings from his father, Isaac (Gen. 25:31).

Yet something happened to him at the lowest point of his life. Faced with the threat of annihilation from Jacob’s enraged brother, God meets him as he is and, of all things, wrestles with him until daybreak (Gen 32:24). God dislocates Jacob’s hip to demonstrate that he was no match for Him. At this point in time, Jacob is broken.

Once Jacob realized that he was wrestling with God, he desperately held on to Him. God now gives him a new direction and purpose, and with it, a new name: Israel – the one who struggled with God and men and has overcome.

Within that moment, Jacob abandoned all his ability to make it through life successfully and surrendered his all to the Lord, broken and repentant. Jacob is blessed by God and his descendants have been richly blessed because of him. His new namesake became the namesake of the entire Jewish nation even up to now.

The presence of God, as well as its accompanying blessings, can come only through an intimate relationship with Him—sometimes through the context of brokenness.

What is brokenness? It is when we surrender to God; relinquishing control of our lives to God; realizing that all we have is not enough until we have Him. Brokenness is when our failures are exposed and the flaws of our character and our lingering sins are brought out into the open, and then God deals with them.

Brokenness is God showing us through the circumstances of our lives that we are nothing without Him. It is the realization that He alone is enough.

Perhaps some of us are going through some tough times right now. These times are no accidents, for they are designed for our good (Rom 8:28). It may help to ask ourselves these questions: Is there anything that I have intentionally put between myself and God? Is there something in my life that God is stripping away? Is there something that I love and trust more than the Lord himself?

We know God can be relentless. However, despite the crushing and breaking, we can take comfort in the fact that God is ultimately good. Brokenness can indeed bring us closer to Him.

Pursue Intimacy With God Series
Speaker: Joby Soriano Date: May 27, 2012