Brokenness - 4

It is human to fear the process of brokenness  (reformation) because of the pain, imagine humans are like tearing a piece of clothe into more pieces in order to fix them into something suitable and fit for God’s use might be unbearable but the sweet gain thereafter is a greater reward than the pain. God won't break you if He can’t fix you. If you need to be broken it implies the shape you are in right now isn’t useful to Him.

2 Corinthians 4:17; For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

You need to know this; one of God’s goals is to strip man of the need to boast of the ability of doing anything for himself. Yes! God has given the resources so that man can feed for himself but the resources are for greater purpose not just for taking care of himself. Brokenness brings out the understanding of the purpose.

That said let’s read the episode 4 of Bob Gass words on brokenness. Click to read episode 1 and episode 2 and episode 3 if you missed the posts.

We don’t always know the reason for our trials, but God revealed to Paul reason for his ‘thorn in the flesh.’ It was to keep him from being ‘exalted’ (see 2 Corinthians 12:7). Success can be intoxicating, and intoxicated people aren’t known for being too bright or trustworthy!

What happens when you get a thorn in your flesh? It hurts. And you’ll let everything else go while you focus on removing it. Three times Paul prayed for God to remove the thorn, but God had another plan.  You see, God is at His strongest in us when we at our weakest. When Paul discovered that God’s power in his life was tied to the thorn that afflicted him, he responded, ‘I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardship, persecutions, and calamities.... for whenever I am weak, then I am strong’ (2 Corinthians 12:10NRS). In other words, ‘if it for my good , bring it on, Lord!’ if you’ve a thorny person in your life from whom you’ve prayed to be delivered and it hasn’t happened, maybe God wants you to experience His grace and power through the dealing with that person. But you won’t experience this until you move from pain to praise.

The bible speaks about ‘the sacrifice of praise to God’ (Hebrew 13:15). A sacrifice means that something has to die on somebody’s altar. So if you want to experience God’s grace and power in your life, you must be willing to die to self-interest, ego, and independence. There’s nothing wrong with asking God to remove your thorn. But when your prayer fir deliverance turns to praise, you’re on your way to power because God is giving you grace. 

Cheers!