Broken by God
Now when He (Jacob) saw that He did not prevail against him He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. Genesis 32:25
Most things decrease in value when they are broken. This is not so with people. In the economy of God, people actually go up in value when they are broken. Why? Because usually when we speak of things being broken, we mean they do not work like they were intended. When people are broken by God, it makes them even more useful to God.
In an all-night wrestling match with God, Jacob was broken. God literally broke him by putting his hip out of socket. It’s pretty hard to wrestle when your hip is out of joint. The only option was to surrender, and that is exactly what God was looking for in Jacob. Jacob had been a cheat and a con. It was time for God to do a deep work in Jacob that only brokenness could accomplish. Being broken is never fun. It is usually very humbling and can even be humiliating. However, God is never out to humiliate us. His intention is to continually bless us, and sometimes it takes brokenness to get us to the point where God can bless us again.
I have experienced this brokenness in a way that is both humbling and humiliating. God had to remove me from ministry for a time and strip me of many things. During the months that followed, I wrestled with God like Jacob in numerous ways. Thankfully, God broke me and brought me to a place of both surrender and openness to His will. Jacob’s hip put him in excruciating pain. The process of being broken is never fun. It produces the fruit of righteousness in us like nothing else. Truly, the blessing is in the breaking.
We were created to be in a love relationship with God. God loves us so much that He is Jealous for us. Anything that get’s between us and God He will seek to remove. This is not because He is jealous of us, but jealous for us, and knows that nothing can fulfill us like He can.