#ReadandReflect: Lord, Break Me If Necessary
Among all the prayers I’ve mentioned so far, personally, this is the most difficult prayer for me. Who wants to be broken? Who wants to experience pain or to suffer? Who wants God to remove something they love from their life? As human beings, it’s normal for us to avoid anything that causes us pain or suffering. We naturally pursue what “makes us happy and fulfilled. There is nothing wrong with this. Actually, it is God’s desire for us to enjoy an abundant life starting here on earth (John 10:10). Unfortunately, the pursuit of happiness oftentimes brings about the worst in man—pride, greed, selfishness, and all kinds of sins. That is when brokenness comes in. Brokenness is an unbearable pain in our life that brings us to a point of hopelessness. God allows us to go through brokenness because it is pain that has a purpose, and all of us are given a choice whether to cooperate with God or not. God uses the process of brokenness to make the ordinary extraordinary. Just look at the Scriptures. Every person that God mightily used had to go through brokenness. Abraham had to offer his son Isaac. Jacob was afraid to meet his brother. Moses had to stay in the wilderness for 40 years. David had to run away from the people trying to kill him. He also lost his kingdom for a while and had to run away from Absalom his son. Jeremiah preached and no one believed him. Peter denied Jesus and experienced deep disappointment with himself. “These are just some of those people who had to go through brokenness before God mightily used them. This means that if we want God to use us extraordinarily, then we should expect brokenness to be part of it. Brokenness that God allows is beautiful when it is surrendered to Him.
Just like Elijah, most of us have felt like giving up. Maybe you have asked the following questions:
I’ve been broken for such a long time. When will this end?
Why is the pain becoming more and more unbearable?
How come the difficult people in my life are still difficult?
I’ve been doing my part, but why does it seem like God is not answering my prayers?
The truth is brokenness is really hard. It’s one thing to hear a testimony of someone who has gone through brokenness and encountered the Lord mightily. It’s another thing when we are the one going through brokenness. When someone shares how he experienced God’s power through brokenness, of course we will be encouraged. But when we are the ones going through it, it’s really tough. Our heart is heavy. We cry almost every day. And, we feel like breaking down anytime.
The process of brokenness will not be complete if we don’t do our part. Our role is to cooperate. Cooperating with God means seeking Him earnestly, surrendering our plans and submitting to Him.
Seek Him earnestly.
The problem sometimes is we try to solve our brokenness on our own. But this is impossible. Brokenness will bring us to a state of helplessness where we can’t do anything to move out of it. Also, it will bring us to absolute dependence where we become totally dependent on God because He can make us whole again.
This is the kind of response God is looking for as we go through brokenness. He wants us to seek Him first before doing anything on our own. Psalm 34:18 says, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” This verse gives two wonderful assurances.
First is that God is close to us. Even if you feel “that no one cares about you or that no one is on your side, know that you are not alone! Whatever you have done, whatever your past or present looks like, God will not reject you if you come to Him in humility. Offer your broken spirit to Him. He will not despise a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17). The second assurance is that He will save us. He will provide a way out. He is able to restore you and lift you up again!
Respond to God by seeking Him in prayer. Be honest with Him about your feelings, your disappointments, your fears and insecurities. There is nothing about you that He doesn’t know already, so you might as well pour it out to Him. Seek Him by reading His Word. Seek Him by talking to godly people who can help you process what you feel.
Surrender your plans to Him.
Most of the time, God allows us to go through brokenness because we are unwilling to let go of certain plans or desires. Maybe we think our plans will work or we are smart enough to live our own life, only to realize, through the process of brokenness, that our plans will not work without God’s help. Surrendering our plans means that we are willing for God to change any of it. Proverbs 16:1–3 says,To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue. All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord. Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.Our role is to commit our plans to God, to submit to His leading and His steps guided by His Word and by godly people.
Submit to Him.
When God finally reveals to us what we need to do, we need to submit to Him. Even if we don’t see or feel that it’s going to work, we need to take that step of faith and obey. It’s called humility. It’s the best response of any broken person. In the end, as we humble ourselves before the Lord, He will take our broken lives in His hands and make them extraordinarily whole. The verse 1 Peter 5:6 is a clear description of what God does to those who humble themselves. He said, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” I experienced that lifting up from the Lord. Elijah experienced that as well. You can experience that too.
This is an excerpt from the book Pray Bold Prayers by Marty Ocaya. This book is available at OMF Lit Bookshops, shop.omflit.com, Shopee, and Lazada for P275.
Frankly, praying could be a frightening thing to do!
We’re afraid we won’t like the answers we’ll get. At times, we pray to follow a ritual than to pursue a relationship with God. So we pray shallow prayers that we don’t really expect to be answered. Our heavenly Father calls us to a life of prayer because through prayer we know Him more. How can we know God and His direction for our life if we don’t pray?
Have your prayers become mere repetitions of memorized words? Have you shied away from praying the prayers you don’t want to pray? This book can help you be brave in your faith. Seek a vibrant spiritual life, expectant of the blessings the Lord has for you. Pray bold prayers.