I realized the other day that it's been a long time since I've shared something that God's been teaching me with you guys. So I thought today would be a great day to do so because I'm at home sick.
Lately God has been teaching me what it means to be broken. I believe that brokenness is something that God wants from us. Makes sense, because if we're not truly broken over our sin, we're not truly repentant. It says in Psalm 51:17 that God will never despise a broken and contrite heart. (Contrite is just a fancy way of saying "repentant".) God has a plan for all of us, but I don't think He wants to use someone unbroken. God wants to use the broken. And sometimes God does whatever it takes to break that person.
The story of Esau and Jacob from Genesis comes to my mind. When they were born, the Lord expressed part of his plan for them by saying that "the older shall serve the younger" (25:23). But as the story progresses, we find out that Jacob (and his mother) tried to take this plan into his own hands by tricking Esau out of his birthright and their father's blessing. Now Esau was furious, so Jacob fled to live with his Uncle Laban. It was here that Jacob was broken. Jacob learned what it was like to be tricked out of something, by ending up with the wrong daughter after their wedding night. Uncle Laban tricked him into working 3 times as long as he had originally intended to. Talk about being mistreated. Talk about being broken. Finally, later on in Jacob's life, we find another time when God broke him. Quite literally. God dislocated Jacob's hip.
Now that may seem drastic, but it doesn't seem outrageous to me. That might've been the only way to get Jacob to finally become broken and repentant before the Lord God Almighty. Sometimes redemption requires discipline. Hebrews 12:6-10 says, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness."
What a promise! God breaks us and disciplines us so that we may share his holiness.
