Usually when something is broken, its value declines or disappears altogether. Broken dishes, broken bottles, broken mirrors are generally scrapped. Even a crack in furniture or a tear in cloth greatly reduces its resale value. But it isn’t that way in the spiritual realm. God puts a premium on broken things --- especially on broken people. That is why we read such verses as:

The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. (Psalm 34:18)
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit,; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. (Psalm 51:17)

God knows how to resist the proud and haughty, but He cannot resist a person who is humble and contrite.

God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6) There is something in our brokenness that appeals to His compassion and power.

And so, part of His wonderful purpose for our lives is that we should be broken -- broken in heart, broken in spirit, and maybe broken even in body.

1. We are introduced to the breaking process prior to our conversion when the Holy Spirit begins His work of convicting us of sin.

2. He must get us to the place where we are willing to confess we are lost, unworthy, deserving only of hell.

3. We probably fight every step of the way. But He continues to wrestle with us until our pride is shattered, our boasting tongue is silenced and all resistance is gone.

4. Lying at the foot of the Cross, we finally whisper, “Lord Jesus, save me.” The will has been broken, the sinner has been mastered, the heart has been made aware of its wretched sinfulness and lustfulness.

An Illustration of this is an unbroken colt: By nature the colt is a wild, lawless creature. At the merest suggestion of a bridle or a saddle, it will rear, bolt, leap and kick. It may be a beautiful, well-proportioned animal, but as long as it is unbroken, it is useless as far as service is concerned. Then comes the painful, prolonged process of bending the colt’s will so that it will submit to the harness. Once the colt’s will has been conquered by a higher will, the animal finds the real reason for its existence. (‘Tis true of us as well.)

An illustration from Matthew 11:28-30: Christ may have made wooden yokes. Someone has beautifully suggested that if there had been a sign over the door of His shop, it probably would have read, “My yokes fit well.” But the point for us is that our divine Lord is still a yoke maker. He says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy,
and my burden is light.”

Yokes are for those who are broken and submissive. Our wills must be subdued and yielded before we can learn of Him. He was gentle and lowly in heart. We must become like Him, and only in so doing we will find rest for our souls.

Now we come to basic questions, “What is meant by true brokenness? How does it manifest itself in a believer’s life? What are some of its basic elements?”

I. Repentance, Confession, Apology:

1. One of the first things is a readiness to confess sin to God and to those we have wronged.

2. A broken man is quick to repent. He does not try to sweep sin under the carpet. He does not try to forget it with the excuse,”Time heals all things.”

3. He rushes into the presence of God and cries, “I have sinned.” Then he goes to whoever has been hurt by his actions and says, “I was wrong. I am sorry. I want you to forgive me.”

4. If on the one hand he ... a) knows the scalding shame of having to apologize, b) on the other hand he knows the great release of having a clear conscience and of walking in the light. (I John 1:6-7, 9)

5. True confession does not gloss over sin or cover up its reality.

In David’s life we have a vivid illustration: David’s life was clouded by sin and failure, but the thing that endeared him to God’s heart was his deep penitence. In Psalms 32 and 51 we retrace with him his transgress- ions, sin and iniquity. We watch him during the time when he refused to repent; life then was physical, mental and spiritual misery. Nothing was right. It seemed that everything was out of joint. Finally he broke. He confessed and God forgave. Then the bells began to ring again and David had recovered his song.

II. Restitution:

1. Closely connected with this first aspect of brokenness is prompt restitution, wherever it is called for.


2. If I have stolen, damaged, or injured something, or if someone else has suffered loss because of my misbehavior, it is not enough to apologize.

3. Justice demands that the loss be repaid. This applies to what happened before my conversion as well as to what happens afterward.

Illustration from Zacchaeus’ life: After Zacchaeus had received the Lord Jesus, he remembered some of the crooked deals he had pulled as a tax-collector. It was a divine instinct that taught him immediately that these wrongs must be made right. So he said to the Lord, “. . . if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” Here the “if” does not express any doubt or indecision. The idea is “in every case where I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will restore it fourfold.” His determination to make restitution was a fruit of his conversion. The “fourfold” was a proof of the vitality of his new life.

4. In some cases, we will not be able to make restitution, in fact it may be impossible. The person may now be dead to whom we would desire to make wrongs right.

5. Or perhaps records have been destroyed, or exact amounts have been forgotten with the passing of time. God knows all about this. All He wants is that we pay back what we owe in every case where we can.

6. Maybe we need to make restitution for wrong attitudes, actions, hurts, unjust dealings and deeds that have hurt someone else. We need to do everything in our power to make past wrongs right.

III. A Forgiving Spirit:

1. A third element of brokenness is the willingness to forgive when we have been wronged. In many cases this takes as much grace as apologizing or making restitution. It demands we have a broken and contrite heart.

2. The New Testament is surprisingly explicit about this. First of all, whenever we have been wronged, we should immediately forgive the person in our hearts. (Ephesians 4:32) We do not go to him yet and tell him he is forgiven, but in our hearts we have actually forgiven him.
3. There are multitudes of little wrongs that can be forgiven, and forgotten immediately. It is a real victory when we do this. “Love... does not keep account of evil, or gloat over the wickedness of other people.”
(I Cor. 13:7, J. B. Phillips trans.)

The moment a man wrongs me, I must forgive him. Then my soul is free. If I hold the wrong against him, I sin against God, and against him and jeopardize my forgiveness with God. Whether the man repents, makes amends, asks my pardon or not, makes no difference. I have instantly forgiven him. Now he must face God with the wrong he has done, but that is his affair and God’s and not mine. I should help him according to Matthew 18:15, etc. But whether this succeeds or not and before this even begins, I must forgive him.

4. If the wrong is of a more serious nature, and you do not feel it would be righteous to let it pass, then the next step is to go to the offender and speak to him about it. (Matthew 18:15)



If he repents, then you must forgive him. “And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and turns to you seven times, and says, ‘I repent’ you must forgive him.” (Luke 17:4) It is only right that we should be willing to forgive indefinitely. After all, we have been and are forgiven times without number by our Heavenly Father.


5. You are NOT to go and tell everyone else about the offender’s fault (that is what we almost invariably do). Go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. The obvious strategy is to keep these differences as confined as possible.

6. As soon as the offending brother confesses his sin, you tell him that he is forgiven. You have already forgiven him in your heart, but now you can administer forgiveness to him.

7. God hates an unforgiving spirit, the determination to carry grudges to the grave, the unwillingness to let bygones be bygones.

Illustration of Christ’s teaching: This is brought out forcefully in the parable of the debtor servant (Matthew 18:23-35). When he himself was bankrupt, he had been forgiven by the king of a million dollars or more. But then he was unwilling to forgive a fellow servant a few dollars. The lesson is clear. Since God forgave us when we were in debt over our heads, we should be willing to forgive others who owe us trifles. Consider the end result: “We will suffer torment.”

IV. Enduring Wrong Without Retaliating:

1. Here is another aspect of brokenness. It is the humble spirit that suffers for doing right and does not retaliate. Here our Lord is the prime example: (Read I Peter 2:22-24 and I Peter 2:19, 20.)


2. When Christ was reviled, He did not revile in return; when he suffered at the hands of the enemy, He did not threaten; but He committed Himself to the Heavenly Father. Do we manifest such a broken and contrite spirit?

Illustrations: In his book, From Grace to Glory, Murdock Campbell reminds us that John Wesley had a wife who made his life a trial by fire. For hours she would literally drag him around the room by his hair. And the founder of Methodism never uttered a harsh word to her.

Campbell also tells of a “a godly Highland minister who was married to a similar women. He sat one day in his room reading his Bible. The door opened and his wife entered. She hand snatched the Book from him and
threw it into the fire. He looked into her face and quietly made the remark, ‘I never sat at a warmer fire,’ It was an answer that turned away her wrath and marked the beginning of a new and gracious life. His Jezebel became a Lydia, the thorn became a lily.”