Psalm 51:17

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

I read prayer news from Dr. Ang HK and found it useful for reflection below:

‘The Calvary Road’, written by Roy Hession, which was first published in 1950.

One of these colleagues shared a sentence from the book which had made an impact on her:

‘Every humiliation, everyone who tries and vexes us is the Father’s way of breaking us, so that there is yet a deeper channel in us for the life of Jesus.’ This helped her to be willing to pay the price of brokenness for the prize of growth, a growth which will allow the ‘likeness of the One who redeemed me to be manifested in my life’.

As Roy Hession puts it, “The Lord Jesus cannot live in us fully and reveal Himself through us until the proud self within us is broken. This simply means that the hard, unyielding self, which justifies itself, wants its own way, stands up for its rights, and seeks its own glory, at last bows its head to God’s will, admits its wrongs, gives up its own way to Jesus, surrenders its rights and discards its own glory- that the Lord Jesus might have all and be all.”

This breaking of the proud self within us is often painful and unbearably humiliating, so we try to avoid it. Yet it is necessary. He must increase and we must decrease if He is to receive the glory and we are to grow in His likeness.

It's indeed true Lord for our proud self to be crucified in order that we can be humble to have further growth.