Living In Hope: Matthew 14:19

                                             The blessing of brokenness

Matthew 14:19 And Jesus took the five loaves and two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and broke, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes. And they did all eat.

Hi everyone. In this scripture I want us to recognize that the bread did not become supernatural until Jesus broke it. It was after the bread was broken that it had the strength to feed the multitudes. 

This is our life. This is our ministry. Only when our life has been broken by the tender, crucified hands of Christ does it truly become supernatural. 

And what is brokenness? We hear much about "brokenness" in the church today. We even sing songs about longing for brokenness: Brokenness, brokenness, that's what I long for. Brokenness, that's what I need. 

Wonderful songs and wonderful truths, but what is it? 

Walking with the Lord for many years, there are actually a few definitions I have come to embrace regarding brokenness, however, for this blog I only want to talk about one. Brokenness is God's remedy for the self-life. Everything that wants to act independently of God must be 'broken.' Self-reliance; self-will; self-sufficiency; self-exaltation; selfishness; the self-life must be broken. 

How does God break the self-life? Through trial and difficulty. God will draw a bullseye around the self-life and allow trials and difficulties to invade our lives that will deal specifically with that area He is targeting. Take Moses for example. It is plain to see he was a very self-sufficient man. Moses problem that God had to break through before He could use him was self-reliance. Moses relied on no one but himself. We see this so plainly in Exodus 2. In killing the Egyptian, Moses was trying to fulfill the purpose of God for his life by trusting in his own strength. Thank you, God, for revealing your purpose for my life. I can take it from here. So God drew a bullseye around self-reliance and began the process of breaking it. How? God allowed Moses to fail in his own great strength. Are you going to kill one of us like you killed the Egyptian? Seized by fear, Moses had to run to Midian to escape Pharaoh. It was in Midian where he began the journey from self-sufficiency to God-dependency. 

So what is the evidence that someone has been broken by the crucified hands of Christ? 

The bible says Jesus looked up to heaven and broke the bread. This is the evidence that one has truly been broken, a life that continually looks to heaven. A life that has absolutely no confidence in self and lives in daily dependence upon God. "Daily my resources come from God. My strength comes from God. My wisdom comes from God. My help comes from God. Everything I need comes from God. Daily I look to Christ and find all that I need in Him." 

This is one facet of brokenness. And it is a journey. Even as Christians, it is so ingrained in the fallen nature to lean upon our own strength. It takes a journey to bring us from self-sufficiency to total God-dependency. However, the more we experience this brokenness, the more supernatural our lives become. 

Friends, are you in a difficult place where you have absolutely nowhere to look but to God?

I know this can be a scary place, but be encouraged, this is all part of brokenness. God is diminishing self-reliance in your life and producing within you a deeper dependence upon God. The more dependent you are upon God, the deeper your strength in the Lord.