Daily Reading: Isaiah chapters 17 thru 20

Key Verse: Isaiah 17:7-8

Why does God have to break us in order for us to turn to Him?  Could it be that in "good times" that the works of our hands and the altar of self-sufficiency push us further and further away from Him?

According to Dr. Charles Stanley:

When God leads us into or allows us to experience breaking periods, He is after our self-will, self-reliance, self-dependence, self-sufficiency.  He's after everything that smacks of self, and of willful independence, in us.  For some, self is all tied up with social status - power, position, authority.  For some, self is inseparable from intellectual prowess or a vibrant "good personality" that always seems to win friends and influence people.  For others, self is tied into appearance or health - beauty, fitness, or energy.  For still others, self is linked most closely to things - possessions, living in the "right" neighborhood.  Our concept of self reveals how much we trust God and have submitted our lives to Him.  Ask yourself, " When do I feel good about myself?  When do I feel bad about myself?

If a bad hair day, a poor performance at work or the loss of a favorite possession throws you into a major sense of loss... If you feel you must have compliments from your spouse or friends, or you must achieve a certain degree of financial independence in order to fell valuable and worthy...If you feel you are "nobody" unless you live in a certain way, have certain perks, or are a recognized for certain accomplishments ... you need to reevaluate your trust relationship with God.  God desires that our concept of self be totally and completely embedded in His love and His definition of what is worthy and valuable.

The more we cling to the thing we are trusting other than God, the harder the breaking period may be.  At times, it seems as if God must wrench from us or shatter within us those things that we trust more than we trust Him.  The breaking process can be extremely painful.  We can know sorrow, hardship, and suffering as we have never known or even imagined.

Our natural tendency when God begins to target an area of breaking in our lives is to cling to that area even more.  Generally speaking, we know what it is that we must yield or submit to God....(People may say)"I knew what I was doing was contrary to what God desired for me, but I did it anyway."  That feeling may have intuitive, unspoken, more subconcious than conscious, but nevertheless, there was a knowing that they had withheld an area of their lives from God.

Why are we afraid to let go? Because we don't want to lose control.  That's pride in its rawest form.  We are afraid that God won't love us enough to meet our needs, fulfill our desires, or give us contentment.  We fear that we will go through life lacking something vital, missing out on something good, or not experiencing something that we desire to experience.  Ask yourself squarely, "How much do you think God loves you?"

If we believe God doesn't love us - or that He doesn't love us enough - then our tendency is not to trust Him.  Trust issues are inevitably love issues.  Ask yourself today," Would God rob you of anything that was for your eternal good?"                    excerpted "The Blessings of  Brokenness"