Brokenness leads to blessing. To receive a double portion of the spirit of Elijah, Elisha, who was a farmer, had to break and burn his plough. To demonstrate her love for Jesus, the woman at Bethany had to break open her box of costly ointment and pour it over Him. To defeat the armies of Midian, Gideon’s three hundred soldiers had to break their pitchers, let their light shine, and make themselves a target. The truth is, God has to break each of us in different areas in order to use us. These areas might be things like bad habits, stubborn wills, inflated egos, evil thoughts, secret prejudices, deep fears, or misguided ambitions. The list is endless. If you’re facing east, you can’t go west, so God has to turn you around. Sometimes that needs discipline. And it’s you, not God, who determines the length of that discipline and the extent of it. ‘No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening – it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way’ (Hebrews 12:11 NLT). God will do whatever it takes to break our habit of self-sufficiency and teach us to rely on Him. Paul wrote, ‘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 Jesus Christ’ (1 Thessalonians 5:23 NASB). Notice that your body comes last in order of transformation. As a regenerate spirit living in an unregenerate body, you will always be ‘fighting the flesh’. But the secret of victory is brokenness to our old self and surrender to God!
