When Brokenness Is a Good Thing. . .

The other night I picked up my phone (my land line phone) to make a call. Instead of hearing a dial tone, all I heard was silence. So I placed the phone back in its cradle, then picked it up again to make the call. This time it was not silence that I heard, but a loud screech! At that point I began to go through the process of resetting our phone line (something Verizon walked me through a couple of years ago). After two futile attempts at doing so, I just gave up - totally frustrated and made a mental note to call the phone company the next day.

The following morning, after pouring my first cup of coffee I picked up the phone. Voila - to my surprise there was a dial tone. Later that morning, I called the house from the office and voila - my wife picked up and we had a pleasant conversation. "Hmm, what is going on here?" I remembered thinking. "Not working last night and OK today? Go figure!" Now I wasn't complaining - just confused but glad to know our land line phones were no longer broken!

Rarely do we rejoice when something is broken. Broken things are never good things ... well almost never. The Bible does talk about a broken something in a very positive light. In Psalm 51:17 we read, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." Spiritual brokenness is a good thing. Please take a moment to read what Nancy DeMoss has to say about this concept of spiritual brokenness:

"Brokenness does not mean, as some think, having a sad, gloomy, downcast countenance--never smiling or laughing. It does not mean always being morbidly introspective. Nor can it be equated with deeply emotional experiences. It is possible to shed buckets full of tears, without ever experiencing a moment of brokenness. Further, brokenness is not the same as being deeply hurt by tragic circumstances. A person may have experienced many deep hurts and tragedies, but never have been broken.

Brokenness is not a feeling; rather, it is a choice, an act of the will. It is not primarily a one-time experience or crisis (though there may be crisis points in the process of brokenness); rather, it is an ongoing, continual lifestyle.

Brokenness is a lifestyle of agreeing with God about the true condition of my heart and life, as He sees it. It is a lifestyle of unconditional, absolute surrender of my will to the will of God--a heart attitude that says, “Yes, Lord!” to whatever God says. Brokenness means the shattering of my self-will, so that the life and Spirit of the Lord Jesus may be released through me. Brokenness is my response of humility and obedience to the conviction of the Word and the Spirit of God. And as the conviction is continuous, so must the brokenness be continuous.

True brokenness has both a vertical and a horizontal dimension: it is demonstrated in a willingness to live with the “roof off ” in my relationship with God, and the “walls down” in my relationships with others."

Thanks for stopping by . . .

pj