Given July 2002

A Christian man or woman praying.  They are thanking God for their status in life; for their education, training, job, and the things they’ve accomplished.  They are pretty proud of what they’ve done and are thanking God for His part in their life.  They’re feeling pretty good.

God replies, “Yes, you’ve done pretty well for yourself but that’s not exactly the way I would have done it.”  God’s response hits them hard and they realize they had spent most of their efforts on education, employment goals, home building, and other tasks that define what the world sees as success.  They immeditely drop to their knees before God and repent saying,”Father, I’m sorry for building my life the way I thought it should be.  I now fully surrender to you and ask you to break me and re-make me the way you intended even before I was born.” “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,before you were born I set you apart; ” Jeremiah 1:5.

When the person asked to be broken before God, the next scene shows them instantly being zapped into a pile of grey/brown dust.  God stands beside the pile with a bottle of oil.  He pours the oil onto the pile of dust and begins forming and shaping the dust into His image.  That’s the way He wants to do it.  “The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” Psalms 51:17.  Are we really broken?