I am convinced that just as nothing good comes easy, God will not exalt someone without also humbling him. Just as to each was given a measure of grace by the Spirit who distributed the spiritual gifts (Eph 4:7; 1 Cor 12:11), so to each God gives a measure of blessing no more and no less than the believer can handle.

One of the most liberating moments of the Christian adventure is when you stop complaining about trials and start praying, “Lord, what would you like to teach me through this? I’m ready to learn—just show me.” This will crash against even much Christian thinking today, but God’s highest goal for you is not to gratify your immediate desires, but to sanctify you so that through your sufferings you learn to be satisfied in Him alone and respond in joy-filled worship.

If you live your life to accrue wealth, gain friends, grow a large ministry, or become famous, you’ll be discontent. These are genuine blessings but living for them instead of Him makes them idols no different than the Jews' golden calf. Contentment and real blessing begin when you live your life for the same purpose God created you: to worship the living God. That comes not by receiving blessings but by growing in holiness which ultimately produces huge blessing. That is why brokenness precedes blessing. I am convinced that the reason God doesn’t bless some Christians more with the things they request is because they cannot handle them—they’d bloat up in pride and forget their absolute dependence on God.

A few weeks ago I asked God for the first time in all my life to continue to humble and break me. It’s taken me years to realize that every time God brought a trial, fear, or painful event into my life it was to teach me how much I need Him. And that brokenness always preceded blessing. God breaks His people in different ways. He knows exactly how and when to do it so that He can empty you of all self-glory and self-dependence and bring you back again to the foot of the cross.

A. W. Tozer once wrote, “God will not use a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.” Tozer understood this first hand. Tozer was not educated beyond high school and it humbled him—especially when he rubbed shoulders with religious bigwigs in a day when education became the new god of the age. Spurgeon suffered severe gout and frequent depression. Moody was mocked for being a shoe salesman. Whitefield was the frequent target of mocking, jeers, and catapulted tomatoes. Authorities incarcerated John Bunyan for 13 years even though he had a wife and children who had no way to provide for themselves. And from that nasty dungeon came the pages of Pilgrim’s Progress, the second most highly read book in all of history, second only to the Bible. Moses was a fugitive for 40 years before he was ready to lead 2.5 million people from slavery. Peter fished for a living before he led the early church.

It works the opposite way in the world. The higher you go, the more you get. But with the believer, the lower you go, the more God blesses. Spurgeon said that every time he dropped into depression he knew that God was getting ready to bless him. For the first years of his ministry his name was kicked around like a football. He became the butt of biting jokes. And yet this was the time when droves of people repented and believed in Christ. But as soon as Spurgeon became the respected sage whom everyone wanted to quote, saving a soul was like chiseling a people out of granite, one by one.

The more God blesses the more He will humble (James 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5). Don’t expect blessing without it. If Christ could not be exalted to heaven until He was first humbled to the cross (Phil 2:7-9) who are we to think that we can somehow receive blessing minus the pain? To keep His people from exalting themselves God gives equal suffering to the blessing He provides.

Why did God refuse to remove the thorn in Paul’s flesh even though Paul requested its removal on three different occasions (2 Cor 12:8-9)? Because this thorn (literally a “take” in the Greek) kept Paul from crediting himself for his successful ministry. That’s what God meant when He told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” And so what does Paul do? He boasts in his weaknesses! He tells others how God has broken him. Who knows how Paul may have swelled in pride if there was no stake in his gut to keep him on his knees.

Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great Welsh preacher from England tells a story from his early career as a minister. When he was a new minister he was much younger than the seasoned ministers around him. One day the other ministers were discussing a young preacher in the area who preached with phenomenal ability. This young man was taking heaven by storm and someone suggested that he may ignite great revival. And then one of the elderly ministers said, “Yes, let’s pray for him. He is a great preacher, but I think you should know, I don’t think he’s been humbled yet.”

Every woman or man who commits his life to God alone will suffer this breaking at some point. Next time you feel crushed, alone, depressed, anxious, sleepless, or tired, drop to your knees and thank the Lord for humbling you so that He can bless you, because brokenness always precedes blessing.