When we fail to allow God to lead us through our brokenness, we risk misinterpreting our struggles.
Instead of seeing them as steps toward holiness, we might perceive them as harm. We may mistake our brokenness for failure rather than recognizing it as a call to faith, opting for selfwill over the necessary corrections in our lives. This is exemplified in Genesis 32, where Jacob wrestled with God all night. This wrestling signifies how we wrestle with God for our way and our selfish will. Jacob’s name means “deceiver.”
Ultimately, we deceive ourselves, thinking our will, our might, our intelligence is far greater than God’s will.
1 John 1:8 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Through the wrestling with God himself, God touched him and broke him—broke his will, broke his might, broke his self-sufficiency.
As a result, he was forever changed, illustrating that breaking is not always a singular moment; rather, it can be a profound journey.
It is through the breaking of our will that we find true breakthrough, and Jacob walked away changed after his encounter with God.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, a place that represented great mental, physical and spiritual anguish—referred to as “The Oil Press”—Jesus faced a pivotal decision: to align His will with that of the Father or chose his own. Jesus’ posture and response was “God, take this from me; yet if it is Your will, let it be.” Here, we see that brokenness reveals our inner struggles, exposing the parts of us that resist submission. Jesus chose the breaking.
Through our brokenness, divine restoration occurs. A heart becomes whole only when it has been genuinely shattered. This is the Lord’s process; He does not break us to leave us in despair.
Instead, He draws us nearer to Him, filling our wounds with compassion and love.
In these moments, He reveals the flaws we may not have acknowledged, allowing us to seek victory over them. Brokenness, then is an answer and not a death wish. It’s these moments that truly make us!
When God breaks us, it can be easy to fall into the trap of the enemy that tells us we are not worthy, that we have no value to God.
We must know the breaking of God is us receiving the value of him. Jesus broke for us so we can be one with God again. Jesus broke so we can face the present and tomorrow not in our own power, but with the very presence of God. Take heart in the breaking knowing God is adding his super to our natural. He, and He only, makes all things new!