If I were able to sum up in one word this past week of orientation with my mission board, Vision Baptist Missions, I believe it would be “Brokeness!” “Brokeness” is typically used in a negative connotation, however, in the Christian life, it is essential to God using our lives for His glory! Let’s look at just a few biblical examples of men that once God broke, He then began to build:
Jacob: (Gen 32:22-31) Jacob wrestled with God until the breaking of day and begged God to bless him. Yet before He blessed him, God touched the hollow of his thigh and it was out of joint. It is at this point that when Jacob was BROKEN, that God changed his name from “trickster” to Israel!
Moses: (Ex 3) Moses was a man that God was constantly breaking. (As with all of us, by the way!) Moses had just killed an Egyptian, fled from Pharaoh, and was now keeping sheep in the wilderness. God comes to him in the burning bush and commissions him to lead the Children of Israel out of captivity in Egypt! Before God used Moses, He had to break him!
David: (2 Sam 11) King David…”a man after God’s own heart!” At a time when kings are supposed to be leading his men on the battlefield, he stays at home and sees another man’s wife bathing. He sins against God, has Uriah killed, and then tries to hide his sin before the face of his people. God sends Nathan, the man of God to confront David, and with authority from God declares to him “thou art the man!” The rest of David’s life is one of loss of children, his son trying to kill him, and BROKENESS before God. However, God always sees David as having a heart that is perfect toward Him.
As I reflect on my life, events that had taken place, loved ones I have lost; I can see the times that God was breaking me! I think on the lessons from this week, and I feel the Holy Spirit convicting me and breaking me. With each trying of my faith, and each storm I endure, I look to the God of Heaven and see Him working in my life and building me each step of the way.
This week was one of “BROKENESS…” God working in my heart to get me to a place of submission where He can build me into an instrument He can use! I pray that others will rejoice in the times of building, and in the times of breaking. For it is during these times of our weakness, that His strength is made perfect!
Stephen Underwood
Missionary to South Africa
Acts 20:24
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