September 30
How God Can Use Brokenness
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. ––Psalm 51:17
Joseph was dealt a poor hand, right? I mean, first his brothers throw him in a pit and leave him for dead. Then he’s enslaved by traders who drag him to Egypt. Joseph would be locked up in chains for thirteen years. Thirteen. Psalm 105:18 actually says, “His feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in chains of iron and his soul entered into the iron” (AMPC) You know why that happened? Because there was something supernatural unfolding here, something that nobody could understand, comprehend, or get their head around. But God was in the midst of all the brokenness. God was in the midst of all the sorrow and the loss and the pain that Joseph would endure.
Could you imagine this kid? He had never been anywhere outside this little tiny village that he was raised in. And these desert traders are going to carry him past the pyramids of Egypt into these huge temples on the Nile River. He had never seen anything or been anywhere—he was just a spoiled, entitled local kid who suddenly had to grow up real fast in order to survive.
He couldn’t have even dreamed that buildings like this existed. He must have been terribly shaken and afraid. He didn’t understand anything that was happening, and spoke not one word of the language. And they hauled him in, put him on the block with a bunch of other slaves, and he was sold to a guy named Potiphar, the head of Pharaoh’s guard; and history records indicate that he was likely the head executioner in all of Egypt. How would you like to work for that guy? If you make a mistake, what happens here? No thank you. You are gone. This would be absolutely terrifying. This kid must have had massive PTSD.
Life was literally punching Joseph in the face. But God was in the middle of it. Joseph, of course, could not see it at the time—but He was. And likewise, in the middle of everything that’s happening with life punching you in the face, could God be in it?
Even if you think “no,” the answer is “yes.” In your dysfunctional home with all the brokenness, was that what God wanted for you? No. When God entrusts a child to two people, He wants those people to care for that person. Some of you didn’t get cared for by those two people—or one person––He entrusted to take care of you. You got abused and wounded and broken and hurt, and it broke God’s heart when that happened.
But that doesn’t mean God can’t rescue you. Because at the end of the day in this story, when Joseph’s brothers end up finding out that he has been elevated to the second position beneath Pharaoh in all of Egypt, the most powerful nation in the world at that time, Joseph could have done anything to them. But he didn’t. What his brothers meant for evil, God intended for good.[1]
Perhaps you really need to hear that today: God can take your brokenness, your failures, and your wickedness—and the wickedness of people who have been around you—and turn it into a blessing. That is, if you bind your heart to His. But, man of God, you have to do that. You have to give Him your heart.
Here’s the problem: Most of us don’t see the Lord as He actually is. Psalm 103:7 says, “He made known His ways to Moses, His deeds to the sons of Israel.” Moses knew God’s heart, whereas other people just saw His actions. And here’s the problem: A lot of Christians live their life like that. We have bumper stickers on our cars, we go to church and sing the songs, but many of us don’t ever take time to really know God. It’s the difference between knowing about God and actually, intimately knowing Him.
He’s come to rescue you. If you have accepted Christ, He has touched you. You embraced that and said, “Man, God is awesome.” But what happened to pressing in to Him? What happened to believing God past the struggle? See, what God said about Moses is true for you and me: He doesn’t just want to know what we do, He wants to know who we are. Here’s the spiritual equation: the closer you get to God and the more that you know Him, the more He’ll reveal your destiny to you.
This is the journey for all of us. Pits, betrayals, dysfunction and all.
Father, I come before You today with my arms full of all my pain and disappointment. I kneel down and drop it all before Your throne. Take my pain, Father, and use it to build me into the person You have destined me to be.
[1] See Genesis 50.