What is broken? – What do we think of when we read the verse "A broken spirit and contrite heart?"  Do we interpret that to mean we give up our strength, and passion?  Thank God it doesn’t mean either one.

When a horse is first trained, the process is called breaking.  Before the horse has been "broken" it is full of power, energy, and drive.  It is dangerous to anyone who dare to ride it.  It does what it wants to and cannot be controlled. 

It’s strength is basically useless because it knows nothing about using it’s own strength to do anything except exactly what it wants to.

Focused Power – After the horse is broken, it possesses all the power, energy and drive that it did before.  The horse has not been impaired, harmed, hindered, or otherwise broken.  It is every bit as capable of running fast, jumping high, and kicking it’s legs up as it did before.

What has changed is why it does those things.

When a horse has been broken, it runs when the master wants it to.  It stops when the master wants it to.  If the master want it to jump, it will jump.  When the master calls it, it will come running.  It has all the same power and speed, the only thing that has changed is why it uses them.

A Broken Spirit – When God says he wants to break our spirit, it’s not because he wants to take away our passion, our energy and our vision.  He wants to change why we do the things we do.  Rather than the short-sighted useless things we would do on our own with what he’s given us, he asks us to apply our strength and energy the way he wants us to.

We don’t lose the ability or the passion to do any of the things we can do, all that changes is why we do them.