Broken Material - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2026

I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit.
Isaiah 57:15

Broken Material
These are seasonable words for all of us. One special want of the present moment is brokenness of spirit. Nine-tenths of our trouble and difficulty may be traced to this want. It is marvelous how we get on from day to day, in the family, in the assembly, in the world, when self is subdued and mortified. A thousand things which else would prove more than a match for our hearts are esteemed as nothing, when our souls are in a truly contrite state. We are enabled to bear reproach and insult, to overlook slights and affronts, to trample upon our prejudices, to yield to others, to be ready for every good work, to exhibit a genial large-heartedness in all our dealings, and elasticity in all our moral movements which so greatly tend to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

How often, alas! it is otherwise with us. We exhibit a stiff, unyielding temper; we stand up for our rights; we maintain our interests; we look after our own things; we contend for our own notions. All this proves, very clearly, that self is not habitually measured and judged in the presence of God.

God will have broken material. He loves us too well to leave us in hardness, and hence it is that He sees fit to pass us through all sorts of exercises in order to bring us into a condition of soul in which He can use us for His own glory. The will must be broken; self-confidence, self-complacency, and self-importance must be pulled up by the roots. God will make use of the scenes and circumstances through which we have to pass, and the people with whom we are associated in daily life, to discipline the heart and subdue the will. And, further, He will deal with us directly Himself, in order to bring about these great practical results.

C. H. Mackintosh