Daily Devotions

Sometimes life just doesn’t make any sense. Have you found that to be true in your own life? You seek God and try to be obedient to Him, but trouble and heartbreak confront you at every turn it seems. Perhaps you thought that life would be easier after you accepted Christ as your Savior, but you’ve found just the opposite to be true. Now you have to deal with the troubles that the world throws at you, and you also feel responsible to honor God in how you respond to them. Somewhere inside of you, you’ve come to the realization that you’re just not strong enough to live the holy life that Christ has called you to.
That’s good! Because God never meant for you to live the Christian life by your own resources. The trials that you’ve been experiencing are part of the breaking process, whereby God frees you from your self-sufficiency so that you’ll allow Christ to live in and through you.
Here is the life principle I want to share with you today: “Brokenness is God’s requirement for maximum usefulness.”
You see, it’s through brokenness that you stop depending on yourself and start looking to Christ for your strength, wisdom, and power.
Jeremiah was a prophet in Judah from 627 BC to C. 586 BC. He served after Manasseh’s reign (c. 685 BC to 630 BC), but the ongoing corruption of the king’s idolatry was felt throughout Judah for many years. God’s punishment for Judah was the Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah’s sad duty was to warn the people of the judgment that was coming. Nothing could prevent God’s judgment, yet Jeremiah was still responsible to proclaim the truth to those who were perishing, in the hope that they would repent and be saved (cf. Jeremiah 18:8).
At times, the suffering that you go through will seem immensely unfair, especially when it comes at the hand of another person. Jeremiah was a godly man who had to endure the consequences of Manasseh’s sin, even though he had nothing to do with the king’s wickedness. Still, God used the pressure to make Jeremiah into His holy mouthpiece, and Jeremiah’s words have endured throughout the generations, bringing hope to countless people undergoing similar persecution.
You must remember that, even when the adversity that you are experiencing appears to be senseless, Romans 8:28 tells us, “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” That trial has been allowed in your life for an eternal reason, a purpose beyond what you can see or even understand at the moment. However, you can be absolutely confident that God will use it for good in your life if you submit yourself to Him (cf. 1 Peter 2:19-20).
Romans 8:20-21 explains, “The creation was subject to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
In other words, you’ve experienced these frustrating trials so that you can be free of the sin nature that is left within you. Yes, you are forgiven of ALL your sin when you cried out to Jesus and accepted Him as your Lord and Savior. However, the tendency to want to sin remains within you, and He must break you of it.
God does so for a couple of reasons. First, to transform you into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29; Ephesians 5:1), and Second, to develop your potential as His representative in the world (Philippians 3:9-10; Colossians 1:24). Therefore, commit yourself to God and heed The words of 1 Peter 4:19, “Those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”
So, how will you live our today’s principle? Spend some time in prayer, asking God to draw you into intimate communion with Himself and to transform your life, so that you can affect the world for the sake of His kingdom.
Remember, it’s through brokenness, you gain a new perspective of God’s mercy and provision (Psalm 73:25-26). You also develop a more complete comprehension of yourself (Psalm 73:21-23), and your compassion and understanding for the suffering of others grows (Hebrews 5:2).