Brokenness

Brokenness: The Heart God Revives

By: Nancy Leigh DeMoss

This is a hard one to write, but here it goes.

This past week, I had the joy of a seeing a lost sheep find his Master. A friend of mine, whose salvation I had been praying for, came to know Christ as his Savior. Surrendering your sin, your life to Christ for the first time is an amazing experience that changes our life. Watching this life change in my friend was such an encouragement, but it was also very convicting. His brokenness over the sin in his life was very evident. It is easy to pray, "God, forgive me of my sins. Amen." But, how often are we not only sorry, but broken over are sins?



Seeing the brokenness of a new Christian spurred me to read Brokenness by Nancy DeMoss. This book is not one to be skimmed through. Every page is convicting and humbling, reminding me that I am not "broken" as I should be. It reminded me that "before God can use you, he has to break you." Our will must be broken and conformed to His will. At the end of the book, I ended up with a list of thirty-five characteristics of a broken person. When lined up with my life, it was hard to mentally check "yes, that's me" to very many of them. Obviously, since I'm no expert on the subject, you definitely need to read the book! I will, however attempt to summarize a few points on what a broken person is, according to the list I made from the book.



A broken person:



...esteems others above themselves, always denying themselves, promoting others if it makes them look worse.



...take responsibility when they are wrong.



...have a spirit dependent on the Lord, recognizing their need for Him.



..."have a sense of their own unworthiness, they are thrilled that God would use them at all."



..."have a heart attitude that says, “I don’t deserve to have any part in this ministry;” they know that they have nothing to offer God except the life of Jesus flowing through their broken lives."



Do we want to be convicted? Do we want to be broken? I'm sure for most, the answer is yes and no. An example from the book really illustrates how we must feel about this issue. Patients go to the hospital for surgery. Why? Because they like pain? Of course not! The pain from the surgery will ultimately work for the good, restoring their health to better than before. Likewise, a broken spirit will lead us to repentance, which will restore our spiritual health and bring us closer to God.



To close, I'll share a quote from Jeremiah Burroughs on the sins of believers:

"Your sins go nearer to the heart of God than [unbelievers],

other men may provoke God to anger, but you grieve His Holy Spirit."

We grieve God's spirit. Wow. May that lead you to brokenness and repentance over your sin.