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Recently, I saw a post about two brothers. One was a teen and the other a toddler. They had gone to the dollar store and the teen had picked up glow sticks. The young toddler wanted a glow stick and was fussing to have it. The teen took one of the glow sticks and broke the stick which is what releases the chemicals to make it glow. He then handed the stick back to his young brother. The toddler was very happy. A sweet story, right?

The author commented and said that you must be broken down (like the stick) for God to use you. The Word does not support that you “must” be a broken person for God to use you-on the contrary! The Word does support that if you have experienced some kind of brokenness He will help you, but being devastated, injured, emotionally bankrupt are not things that God desires for his children. People seem to be confused about understanding the Word where brokenness is concerned.

It is true that God desires for his children to be humble, but this is not the same as broken. “Jesus was not ashamed to humble Himself as a servant (John 13:1-16), even to death on the cross (Philippians 2:8). In His humility, He was always obedient to the Father and so should the humble Christian be willing to put aside all selfishness and submit in obedience to God and His Word. True humility produces godliness, contentment, and security.” However, this humbleness is not the same as being devasted or having a life crisis (being broken). Oh my! Can you imagine if we said to people — in order for you to serve God you have to be broken down first. To be humble means that you recognize that God is supreme: not your job, your title, your money, your family or anything else — you have placed him as number one in your life. You choose God over everything else!

Some people find it hard to submit themselves to God. They are disobedient and therefore they lack godly blessing and favor in their lives. Due to their disobedience, they find themselves in situations that can and will break them. We also cannot control what others do and their choices can have a negative impact on our lives. God is always there to help us through, but it much easier just to choose to make Him number one. Even when we have no control, we can still choose to submit our lives to God and allow him to be glorified even in our brokenness.

Yvette Perrin can be reached at theword2yvette@gmail.com