Life Principle 15

: Brokenness Is God’s Requirement for Maximum Usefulness

Table of Contents

1. The Principle of Brokenness
2. If You Return, Then I Will Bring You Back (Jeremiah 15:19)
3. God Never Meant for Christians to Live by Their Own Resources
4. How Sin Affected Judah (2 Kings 21:1-16)
5. God’s Judgment upon Judah (Jeremiah 15:4-6)
6. How Jeremiah Responded to God (Jeremiah 15:15-21)
7. God’s Promise to Jeremiah
8. Suffering Sometimes Seems Unfair
9. The God of All Comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-11)
10. Life Lessons: New Perspectives (Psalm 73:25-26)
11. When the Heart Is Grieved (Psalm 73:21-23)
12. Compassion Born of Weakness (Hebrews 5:2)
13. Application: Embracing Brokenness for Usefulness

Beloved friend, God does not use self-sufficient people at maximum capacity. He uses broken vessels. Life Principle 15 teaches that brokenness is God’s requirement for maximum usefulness. When we come to the end of ourselves, we finally become usable in His hands. Let us open the Scriptures and learn.

The Principle of Brokenness

Brokenness is not the end of usefulness; it is the beginning. God allows the breaking of self-reliance so that His power may rest upon us.

If You Return, Then I Will Bring You Back (Jeremiah 15:19)

Jeremiah 15:19 (NKJV)
Therefore thus says the Lord:
“If you return,
Then I will bring you back;
You shall stand before Me;
If you take out the precious from the vile,
You shall be as My mouth.
Let them return to you,
But you must not return to them.”

God’s word to Jeremiah was a call to return. Only then would he stand before the Lord and become as His mouth. Brokenness leads to restoration and usefulness.

God Never Meant for Christians to Live by Their Own Resources

It is important to point out that God never meant for Christians to live by their own resources. Sometimes that is why He allows a breaking. When we try to serve Him in our own strength, He permits circumstances that strip us of self-sufficiency so that we must depend on Him alone.

How Sin Affected Judah (2 Kings 21:1-16)

2 Kings 21:1-16 (NKJV)
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.
2 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.
3 For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he raised up altars for Baal, and made a wooden image, as Ahab king of Israel had done; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.
4 He also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My name.”
5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.
6 Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.
7 He even set a carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever;
8 and I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers—only if they are careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.”
9 But they paid no attention, and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.
10 And the Lord spoke by His servants the prophets, saying,
11 “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols),
12 therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle.
13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
14 So I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies,
15 because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.’ ”
16 Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord.

Sin under Manasseh affected Judah by leading the people into greater evil than the nations God had destroyed. He rebuilt high places, practiced child sacrifice and witchcraft, set idols in the temple, and shed innocent blood. The result was the promise of calamity so severe that ears would tingle.

God’s Judgment upon Judah (Jeremiah 15:4-6)

Jeremiah 15:4-6 (NKJV)
4 I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.
5 “For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem?
Or who will bemoan you?
Or who will turn aside to ask how you are doing?
6 You have forsaken Me,” says the Lord,
“You have gone backward.
Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you;
I am weary of relenting!”

God’s judgment fell because of Manasseh’s sins and the people’s continued rebellion. They forsook the Lord and went backward. He stretched out His hand to destroy them.

How Jeremiah Responded to God (Jeremiah 15:15-21)

Jeremiah 15:15-21 (NKJV)
15 O Lord, You know;
Remember me and visit me,
And take vengeance for me on my persecutors.
In Your enduring patience, do not take me away.
Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke.
16 Your words were found, and I ate them,
And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;
For I am called by Your name,
O Lord God of hosts.
17 I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers,
Nor did I rejoice;
I sat alone because of Your hand,
For You have filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain perpetual
And my wound incurable,
Which refuses to be healed?
Will You surely be to me like an unreliable stream,
As waters that fail?
19 Therefore thus says the Lord:
“If you return,
Then I will bring you back;
You shall stand before Me;
If you take out the precious from the vile,
You shall be as My mouth.
Let them return to you,
But you must not return to them.
20 And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall;
And they will fight against you,
But they shall not prevail against you;
For I am with you to save you
And deliver you,” says the Lord.
21 “I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.”

Jeremiah responded with honest complaint and longing. He ate God’s words as joy, yet he felt perpetual pain and wondered if God was like a failing stream. God answered with a call to return and a promise of restoration.

God’s Promise to Jeremiah

If Jeremiah would return, God would bring him back, make him stand before Him, and make him as His mouth. He would be a fortified bronze wall. God would be with him to save and deliver him from the wicked and the terrible.

Suffering Sometimes Seems Unfair

Suffering sometimes does seem unfair, especially when it is at the hands of another person. Jeremiah had to endure the consequences of others’ sin. Paul the apostle had to as well, and even Jesus had to endure it at the hands of sinful men. You are in good company.

The God of All Comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-11)

2 Corinthians 1:3-11 (NKJV)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.
6 Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
7 And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.
8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.
9 Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead,
10 who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us,
11 you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many.

Paul learned that the God of all comfort comforts us in tribulation so that we may comfort others. The breaking taught him not to trust in himself but in God who raises the dead.

Life Lessons: New Perspectives (Psalm 73:25-26)

Sometimes we gain new perspectives through brokenness.
Psalm 73:25-26 (NKJV)
25 Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
26 My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

When flesh and heart fail, God becomes the strength of the heart and the portion forever. Brokenness reorders desire toward God alone.

When the Heart Is Grieved (Psalm 73:21-23)

Psalm 73:21-23 (NKJV)
21 Thus my heart was grieved,
And I was vexed in my mind.
22 I was so foolish and ignorant;
I was like a beast before You.
23 Nevertheless I am continually with You;
You hold me by my right hand.

Even when the heart is grieved and we feel foolish, God holds us by the right hand. Brokenness does not mean abandonment.

Compassion Born of Weakness (Hebrews 5:2)

Hebrews 5:2 (NKJV)
He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness.

Those who have been broken and know their own weakness can have compassion on others who are ignorant and going astray. Brokenness produces usable compassion.

Application: Embracing Brokenness for Usefulness

Friend, God is not against you when He allows breaking. He is preparing you for maximum usefulness. Return to Him. Take the precious from the vile. Let Him make you as His mouth. Trust the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. When your flesh and heart fail, He will be the strength of your heart. Those who are broken in His hands become the ones through whom He works most powerfully.

Amen