The Purpose Of Brokenness

God can bring purpose out of pain, hope out of despair, and beauty out of brokenness. Just as a broken heart can become a place where His grace is deeply experienced, our struggles can become testimonies of His faithfulness.

Isaiah 66:2

“Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the LORD. “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word”.

Isaiah 66:2 teaches that God values a humble and repentant heart more than outward religious appearance or human achievement.

The verse says that God made everything, yet He looks with special favour on the person who is “humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

We may not have great accomplishments to offer Him, but we can come with humility, acknowledge our need for Him, and take His Word seriously.

Brokenness is something we all experience—through loss, disappointment, failure, or pain. We may wonder, “If God is good, why does He allow these things to happen?”

The Bible reminds us that God does not waste our brokenness. Sometimes, He allows us to walk through difficult seasons not because He has abandoned us, but because He is shaping us, drawing us closer to Him, and teaching us to depend on His strength rather than our own.

God can bring purpose out of pain, hope out of despair, and beauty out of brokenness. Just as a broken heart can become a place where His grace is deeply experienced, our struggles can become testimonies of His faithfulness.

Brokenness is one of the most misunderstood processes in the life of a believer.

We often celebrate blessings but question the process that produced it.

We praise the story of Joseph in the palace, but we don't talk enough about the pit.

We are happy to see David on the throne, but we forget the wilderness.

We celebrate Peter's restoration, but we overlook the crushing failure that brought him to tears.

We exalt Paul's ministry, but we rarely talk about the thorn that kept him dependent upon grace.

Scripture repeatedly reveals a profound principle:

God can use broken places to build strong people.

Brokenness is not always punishment.

Sometimes brokenness is time of preparation.

Sometimes God allows something to be broken because the thing, as it currently exists, cannot carry what He intends to place inside it.

A seed must be broken open before it becomes a tree.

Bread must be broken before it feeds a multitude.

The alabaster box had to be broken before the fragrance filled the room.

And sometimes we must be broken so that what God placed inside us could be released.

The Bible gives many examples of God allowing His servants to experience brokenness—not because He had rejected them, but because He was shaping their faith, character, and calling so that they could represent God in this world.

Biblical brokenness is not always punishment. Sometimes God allows brokenness to transform us.

God may allow us to be broken, but He does not abandon us in our brokenness. He can use the very places where we feel weakest to reveal His strength most clearly.

Let’s see below the purpose of brokenness.

A. BROKENNESS BRINGS US TO THE END OF SELF

One of the purposes of brokenness is to bring us to the place where we stop trusting our own strength.

Paul said:

“We were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life.”

2 Corinthians 1:8

Then he explained the reason-

“That we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.”

Notice the progression.

There are things you will never learn about God while you are completely confident in yourself.

As long as we believe, ‘we can handle this’, we may never discover that God can sustain us when we cannot handle it.

Sometimes God allows our strength to fail because our strength has become our god.

We say we trust God, but our confidence is actually in our resources, our connections, our intelligence, our experience, our money, our position, or our ability to control circumstances.

Brokenness teaches us a lesson ‘You are not sufficient by yourself’.

Brokenness teaches us the difference between self-sufficiency and God-sufficiency.

We see the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15, where the father allowed him to stay wherever he was for a season of time until he came into his senses. We know what happened later. He came back to his father’s house with a broken life, trusting only in the goodness of his father with no claim of his virtues. He would never leave his father’s house again.

This is what God accomplishes when He allows us to go through some tough times- He teaches us that when you come to the end of your self, you start trusting in God.

Peter — broken through failure.

Peter confidently declared that he would never abandon Jesus, yet he denied Him three times. His failure broke his self-confidence, but Jesus restored him and entrusted him with ministry. (Luke 22:54–62; John 21:15–19)

Do you know what sin Peter had committed?

Matthew 10:33

"But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."

Sometimes, as a last resort God will allow us to fall into sin and will be exposed! That will break us into pieces if we fear God.

We read in Luke 22:62, “"And he went outside and wept bitterly" (or "And Peter went out, and wept bitterly"

BROKENNESS DESTROYS PRIDE

We read in Daniel 4:29-37

Nebuchadnezzar had power, wealth, influence, and authority.

But God allowed him to be humbled until he learned:

“The most High ruleth in the kingdom of men.” (Daniel 4:32)

Sometimes God allows us to experience something we cannot fix because He is teaching us that we are not God.

BROKENNESS TEACHES SURRENDER

“Not my will, but thine, be done.”

Hebrews 5:7-9

“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him”.

B. BROKENNESS MAKES ROOM FOR GOD'S STRENGTH

Paul prayed three times for his thorn to be removed.

God did not remove it.

Instead, God said:

“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Moses — broken through failure and isolation

After killing an Egyptian (Exodus 2:11-12), Moses fled Egypt and spent years in the wilderness. He had to live in his father-in-law's house for forty years. Think of the prince of Egypt living at the mercy of a man for forty years for his daily life. God used that season to humble and prepare him for leadership.

Exodus 2–3

Finally when God asked him to be the leader, he said I am not fit for that. He knew all his human strength and credentials were drained off. That qualified him to be a man of God. God has put His strength in him.

After forty years in the wilderness, Moses’ humility came from being broken of self-reliance and dependence on his own strength. Earlier, he had acted impulsively and tried to deliver Israel in his own way. But in the wilderness, God shaped him through obscurity, waiting, and hardship. A man who killed the Egyptian with one blow, no longer saw himself capable of being a leader.

By the time God called him at the burning bush, Moses no longer saw himself as capable or important. He said, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” (Exodus 3:11). Numbers 12:3 even describes him as “very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.”

His forty years of wilderness preparation taught him that God’s work does not depend on Moses’ strength, status, or ability—it depends on God. His humility was not thinking he was worthless; it was recognizing that without God, he was not sufficient, but with God, he could obey.

Moses faced opposition with humility by not making the mission about defending himself or proving his authority. The wilderness had taught him patience, dependence on God, and restraint.

When challenged by his own people, Moses often brought the matter before God rather than reacting in anger.

When Miriam and Aaron opposed him, Moses did not retaliate or defend his reputation. Instead, God Himself defended Moses (Numbers 12).

When Korah rebelled against his leadership, Moses fell facedown before God (Numbers 16:4). His first response was prayer and submission rather than pride or revenge.

When the people complained, Moses continued interceding for them—even after they repeatedly rejected him. He carried their burden before God.

When he was criticized, he trusted God to judge rightly rather than trying to establish his own greatness.

In this sense, Moses’ humility was strength under control. He had authority, but he did not have to constantly prove it. He could remain quiet, pray, and let God vindicate him.

The wilderness had taught Moses: “I don't have to fight for my position; God is the One who called me, and He is able to defend what He has entrusted to me.”

C. BROKENNESS CREATES SPIRITUAL CAPACITY

Mark 14 tells us that a woman came with an alabaster box of costly ointment and broke the box and poured it upon Jesus.

Consider the alabaster box.

The fragrance was already inside.

But the fragrance could not fill the room until the box was broken.

The fragrance became public because the container was broken.

There is a powerful spiritual picture here.

Something can be inside you without yet being released through you.

That is because the outer shell must be broken before the inner treasure becomes visible.

Your broken season may therefore be developing the capacity required for your assignment.

God is not only preparing you for where you are going; He is preparing you to carry what you will encounter when you get there.

Paul — broken through suffering

Paul endured imprisonment, beatings, rejection, persecution, and hardship. That is when he learned that God's grace was sufficient in his weakness.

2 Corinthians 12:9

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Paul’s hardships and imprisonments did not stop God from using him; they became opportunities for the Gospel to spread. Even while imprisoned, Paul continued preaching, encouraging believers, writing letters, and sharing Christ with those around him. His suffering gave him opportunities to reach people he might never otherwise have reached.

Instead of allowing his circumstances to defeat him, Paul trusted God and said, “the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel” (Philippians 1:12).

Paul’s life teaches us that our difficulties do not disqualify us from being used by God. Sometimes God uses the very places of hardship, limitation, and suffering to make our testimony stronger and to reach others through us.

Because Paul was imprisoned, he had opportunities to write letters to the churches that later became part of the New Testament. What appeared to be a limitation became an opportunity for God to use Paul’s suffering to encourage, teach, and strengthen believers for generations to come. 

God is not merely a breaker. He is a restorer.

Psalm 147:3 says:

“He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.”

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING BROKEN AND STAYING BROKEN

This distinction is important.

God may use brokenness.

But God does not call us to build our identity around our brokenness.

God's purpose is not simply to leave you bleeding.

His purpose is to heal, transform, mature, and eventually use you.

God can use brokenness to empty us of self-reliance and make more room for Him.

Through brokenness, God can increase our spiritual capacity by creating more room for Him in our lives. Things that once occupied us—pride, self-reliance, the need for control, worldly ambitions, or dependence on our own strength—can gradually lose their grip.

As these things are surrendered, the space they occupy can be filled with deeper dependence on God, prayer, humility, faith, compassion, and a greater desire for His purposes.

Brokenness, therefore, is not God destroying us; it is often God making room in us for more of Himself.

In short, God sometimes uses brokenness to empty our hands of what we have been holding, so that He can fill them with what truly matters. 

By Pastor Renji George

Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 1:8, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Daniel 4:32, Daniel 4:29-37, Exodus 2:11-12, Exodus 2, Exodus 3:11, Hebrews 5:7-9, Isaiah 66:2, John 21:15, John 21:15-19, Luke 15, Luke 22:54, Luke 22:62, Luke 22:54-62, Mark 14, Matthew 10:33, Numbers 12:3, Numbers 12, Numbers 16:4, Philippians 1:12, Psalm 147:3, Psalms 147:3

Sermon Topics: Blessing, Cross, Peter, Brokenness, Break, Build, Broken Man, Carrying Cross