We may have our will surrendered to do His will, and yet miss a large part of the blessing He would give in our doing.
Our spirit must be broken also, so that we see in every test, and circumstance of each day His loving hand permitting, and gladly accept all from Him, because His all-seeing eye understands what will accomplish, our “perfecting.”
The trial can more quickly be removed, because as we accept it, asking for the lesson He would teach, and victory over Satan, He can then quiet us and show us the light we need.
God uses most for His glory those people and things which are most perfectly broken. The sacrifices He accepts are broken and contrite hearts. It was the thorough breaking down of Jacob’s natural strength at Peniel that got him where God could clothe him with spiritual power. It was by breaking the surface of the rock at Horeb by the stroke of Moses’s rod, that it let out the cool waters to thirsty people.
It was when the three hundred elect soldiers under Gideon broke their pitchers, a type of breaking themselves, that the hidden lights shone forth to the consternation of their adversaries. It was when the poor woman broke the seal of the little pot of oil, and poured it forth, that God multiplied it to pay her debts and supply means of support.
It was when Esther risked her life and broke through the rigid etiquette of a heathen court that she obtained favor to rescue her people from death. It was when Jesus took the five loaves and broke them, the bread was multiplied in the very act of breaking, sufficient to feed five thousand. It was when Mary broke her beautiful alabaster box, rendering it henceforth useless, that the pent-up perfume filled the whole house. It was when Jesus allowed His precious body to be broken to pieces by thorns and nails and spear, that His inner life was poured out, like a crystal ocean for thirsty sinners to drink and live.
It is when a beautiful grain of corn is broken up in the earth by DEATH that its inner heart sprouts forth and bears hundreds of other grains. And thus on and on, through all history, all biography, and all vegetation, and all spiritual life, God must have BROKEN THINGS.
Those who are broken in wealth, and broken in self-will, and broken in their ambitions, and broken in their beautiful ideals, and broken in Worldly reputation, and broken in their affections, and broken oft-times in health, and those who are despised, and seem utterly helpless and forlorn, the Holy Ghost is seizing upon, and using for God’s glory. It is “the lame that take the prey,” Isaiah tells us. It is the weak that overcome the devil. God is waiting to take hold of our failures and nothingness and shine through them.
Anon.