Oh my God, blow them away like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind. As a fire roars through a forest and as a flame sets mountains ablaze, chase them with your fierce storms; terrify them with your tempests. Utterly disgrace them until they submit to your name, O Lord. Let them be ashamed and terrified forever. Make them failures in everything they do, until they learn that You alone are called the Lord, that You alone are the Most High, supreme over all the earth.
Psalm 84:13-18
Through my studies this week I came across a heading in the concordance of my bible that grabbed my attention. There in black and white I was caught off guard seeing the words: "God sometimes has to break our heart". I know God is a jealous God and wants us to follow only Him and have no other gods but would He go to the extreme of breaking our heart to get our attention? I was lead to Ezekiel 6:8-10 and as I studied I was reminded of the many times God brought destruction on people.
“But I will let a few of my people escape destruction, and they will be scattered among the nations of the world. 9 Then when they are exiled among the nations, they will remember me. They will recognize how hurt I am by their unfaithful hearts and lustful eyes that long for their idols. Then at last they will hate themselves for all their detestable sins.10 They will know that I alone am the Lord and that I was serious when I said I would bring this calamity on them.
His love was so strong for His creation that He could not sit back and watch them follow other gods and put their trust in idols. They chose to live life their own way and compromised, or disregarded God's law all together. In the destruction He would lead a few to repent and experience a life changing moment. I found it interesting that God would break our hearts that way but you see even in the destruction God's ultimate goal isn't necessarily for hurting us but for breaking us for a more beautiful, fulfilling life in Him.
We probably all know someone who isn't living the way she should, or who chooses to reject God. There are people in our lives who call themselves christians who aren't living as christians. They are ignoring God's commandments and denying God as Ruler of their life. Right now I have one particular friend who I know needs to open her ears and heart to God's voice but she is running so fast that she won't give anyone a chance to even speak. And I can pray that this will happen soon. I can pray that her ears be open, her heart be changed and her eyes clear to see God in her life, and God will honor that, but sometimes when it gets so bad we need to ask God to break that person's heart. Not that we want hardship for them but more importantly, we desperately want our friend or loved one to stop running and stand still long enough to hear God. Sometimes, unfortunately, the only way that can happen is if she is stopped cold in her tracks, broken and alone. So we pray the scripture above and ask God to chase our friend and run her down, and punish her for her lust and infidelity to Him. It sounds harsh, but we want God to terrify her bringing her disgrace and loneliness that leads to broken pride. We ask Him to thwart all her plans so that she no longer has anything going for her and she is finally brought to a place of complete humbleness. Her pride is broken, she has nothing left and she reaches out only to find God waiting there to rescue her.
It is hard to believe that it would take this much and that anyone would even wish this treatment on an enemy let alone a friend but I am a firm believer in the power of the Holy Spirit to reach people in their desperation. When a person, who knows God, lives by her own power, and then everything falls apart, she is smart to assume that she has run out of power and it is time to turn to the source of all power, Her Lord who alone is the Most High. So you see when we pray for our spouse, parent, friend, neighbor or child to be broken it is not with the intention of hurting them or embarrassing them, it is for one reason only............to be broken of pride and brought to complete surrender to God. Do you love someone enough to pray for his or her brokenness?
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