This devotional about brokenness before God will inspire you with how the Lord can use brokenness of spirit to transform you!
The word brokenness refers to the state of surrender and defeat we experience when hardship comes into our usually steady and painless life. Sometimes brokenness before God is the result of sin, our own sin or someone else’s. And other times it is the result of circumstances. No one enjoys the feeling of brokenness, but the powerful benefits it brings to our spiritual growth are immense.
As Christians, being broken gives us an entirely new perspective on the Lord’s plan for our lives. We are human beings, bound to earthly perceptions. Enjoying a steady stream of blessings has an interesting effect on most of us: It distorts our view of the Father, often leaving us to assume that He exists for us.
Most of our relationship with God is confined to asking Him to bless us. We ask God for healing, for success, for financial security. We ask Him to bless our family, to bless our jobs, to bless our plans. We ask and ask and ask.
If we are honest with ourselves, most of the time we spend in prayer is not really talking to the Lord at all. Think about it: Who is actually at the center when we pray?
Brokenness before God reminds us to center on Christ.
It may be shameful for some of us to realize that more often than not, we are at the center of our prayers rather than Christ. The end result of this is the subtle belief that Christ exists for our benefit. This distortion breaks God’s heart and leads us far away from truly knowing Him for who He really is: our King and Creator!
When the Lord says “No,” when He takes away instead of adding more, when He divinely manages what we have, how much we have, and how long we have it, He is helping us keep our eyes on Him.
Christian, do not despise these moments when we are brokenhearted. Instead, dwell in humility and recognize these feelings of brokenness and sorrow as the voice of our Lord calling us back into His loving arms.
Brokenness before God is the antidote to our self-centered nature.
The Bible makes this clear throughout the Psalms and in 2 Corinthians 4, verses 8 to 10:
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. — 2 Corinthians 4:8–10, NIV
A Prayer of Brokenness:
Lord, help us accept and embrace the moments when we are broken in spirit. Help us seek Christ in the middle of our suffering. Help our prayer to be focused on You, Lord, and only You!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Claudia Longorio works as the Complementary Interventions specialist for Central America and the Caribbean. She lives and works in our Latin America regional office in Florida.
At Compassion, we believe that wholeness is only possible when Jesus is at the center of our hearts, which is why spiritual growth is so important to us. Want to find more ways to draw close to Jesus through the Bible and grow in your spiritual life? Read all of the One in Spirit Bible devotionals. This article was originally published January 11, 2012.
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This article has truly added to the knowledge I received exactly one month ago; November 6. 2021.
I am truly blessed in my pain. I pray for people with sickness and ailments and God will heal them but could not understand why I am not healed. I now understand.
Thank you for helping me to understand.
Susan, thank you for being vulnerable and sharing. Walking the path of of pain is not easy, and we pray that you daily find encouragement from the Lord!
Brokenness is allowing God to break you and to remould you for His glory.
Hmm, but God chastises us when we err, God did not cause the losses Job experienced in the bible but knew about it and permitted it with borderline (Job 1:12). Most importantly if we remain with God(John 15:4) all things we end up for our good (Rom 8:28)
This was a great encouragement words from the Lord
Very profound and transformational piece here. If I was to summarize this devotional in four words, I would call it; “Brokenness for greater breakthrough”. Breakthrough in the sense that through brokenness we are able to focus on God and be embraced into his loving arms, where we find ALL that we may need.
Thanks for sharing.
Great reminder here. I like the part-Brokenness is the antidote to our self-centered nature.Do not despise these moments; instead, dwell in humility and recognize these feelings of brokenness as the voice of our Father calling us back into His loving arms.
Thanks sis Claudia for sharing.
Awesome post! If we all keep our eyes on our Lord Jesus Christ as we go through,He is there for and with us through it all. He said he’d never leave or forsake us. He’s our strength, our strong tower. Our GOD is an awesome God. He loves us all.
Brokenness is a state of lowliness in a person life. It is a state of admitting and surrendering all to God for help. Mandy, if you often get your Brokenness from negative things then, God is drawing your attention to him that he desired your all. I think God is saying something about you that you are yet to comply. If you dont mind take a few days of fasting and praying for concentration and ask for Direction like Samuel. 1 samuel 3:1-9. David Akinpade.
Great post!
I write for the Far East Broadcasting Blog…. would it be okay to link up this particular post (and cite you and the Compassion Int’l blog properly of course)?
Thank you!
Sincerely,
Karina Feichtmann
Yes Karina, you do have permission to do that. Glad you liked the post!
Brilliant, thank you so much!
I am sorry, Mandy, for your suffering! I understand your stated concern.
Mine is different–two special-needs children, making daily life very taxing in many ways, including in seeing them suffer. While He doesn’t cause evil to happen, he does make a decision not to prevent evil in many cases. Similarly, He could prevent or heal disorders and diseases, but he usually doesn’t.
In each case–evil, or disorder and disease–the brokenness coupled with His presence in our lives brings Him glory, because it is through his strength only that we endure. And not only endure, but with a thankful heart and a heart that says, “Use me”. That God-breathed strength brings others to Christ and closer to Christ. We all know ordinary people don’t possess such strength; it can only come from God himself. I don’t know of a more powerful way to open eyes and hearts than to see God’s power inside someone.
Even the miracles in the Bible are soon forgotten–miraculous healings and making wine from water and huge feasts from a few morsels. They are something we can only read about now. But God’s power manifested in the suffering? I like to think of it as present-day God miracles.
I agree with you 100% Christine! Thank you for clarifying my point and saying it better than I did. 🙂
I think this is an interesting post. My only concern is that a lot of brokenness in my life has come from evil things. I agree that God has used these evils to turn me back to him, but I think it’s dangerous to say that brokenness is God calling us back to him or that it is him taking something away from us. Floyd McClung said it best when he said, “God doesn’t cause evil to happen, he is just bigger than it is.”