The Alabaster Box: Why Your Breaking is the Key to Your Blessing
Have you ever felt like there are two different versions of you living in the same skin?
On the inside, you have this hunger for God. You want to pray and you really do love His Word. But then there is the “outer you.” That is the person who gets frustrated in traffic or craves likes on social media. It is the part of you that feels totally cold even while you are singing a worship song at church.
If you have ever felt that disconnect, you are not alone. You have just found the biggest hurdle in your spiritual life. We call it the Outer Man.
At All New Things, I talk a lot about transformation. But real change is not about “fixing” your personality. It is not about trying harder to be a “good Christian.” It is about something much more radical. It is about a breaking.
The Problem of the Two Men
The Bible shows a clear difference between our “inner man” and our “outer man.”
Think of your inner man as the place where God lives. It is your spirit. That is where all of God’s life and power are stored up. Your outer man is your soul. It is your mind, your emotions, and your will. It is the part of you that deals with the world.
Here is the big problem. God’s life is locked inside your spirit like a treasure in a jar. For that treasure to be seen, the jar has to be cracked. For the light to shine, the lampshade has to be removed.
As long as that “outer man” stays strong and independent, the “inner man” stays trapped. This is why so many of us feel like we have potential for God but we never see any real power. The shell is just too thick.
What an Alabaster Flask Teaches Us
In the Gospels, we read about a woman who brought a jar of expensive perfume to Jesus. It was worth a lot of money. But look at what had to happen for the smell to fill the room. The jar had to be broken.
A lot of us spend our lives trying to polish our jars. We work on our reputations or our natural talents. We think the jar is the prize. But God is not an antique collector. He is after the aroma of the spirit inside.
The church today does not need more “perfect” experts. The world does not need more Christians who act like they have it all together. It needs the life of the Spirit to be released. And that only happens through the cracks of a broken life.
My Struggle With Pride
I can tell you from experience that pride and stubborn independence have been the biggest hurdles in my life. They kept me from being used by God for a long time.
I look back now and see so much wasted time. God was using my circumstances to break down my outer walls, but I did not see His hand at all. Instead, I immediately thought that God would not help me because of the choices I had made.
I knew He loved me, but I saw Him the way I saw my parents or other Christians. They loved me, but they were disappointed in my lifestyle. They were so uncomfortable with things they called “sinful” that they never really got close enough to know me. They could only offer generic advice that felt judgmental.
I assumed God was the same way. I thought He was keeping His distance because He was disappointed. But God was actually so close that He was protecting me when I did not even know it.
Stop Giving God Human Traits
We are so sure that what we feel is the truth. For years, I felt so much shame over my choices. I felt so much guilt over the pain I caused my parents. I carried so much hurt that I just assumed God felt the same way about me.
We have to be so careful not to give God human traits. He is not like people. He can love on a level that we cannot. He is always true to His Word. Always. God’s Word never fails.
The real threat to my relationship with God for all those years was actually me. It was my pride and my feelings getting in the way of what God was trying to do.
How God Breaks the Shell
If you are going through a hard season, you might think God has left you. But what if those trials are actually tools?
God usually breaks our “outer man” in two ways. First, He uses your environment. He uses the difficult boss or the financial struggle to strike at your self-will. Second, He turns on the light. He shows you your own pride so clearly that you cannot stand to look at it anymore.
We often pray for “blessings,” but the discipline of the Holy Spirit is actually the greatest grace we can get. Prayer and Bible study nourish you, but only discipline can tear down the “self” that gets in God’s way.
The Result of a Broken Life
So, what does a “broken” person look like? They are not sad or weak. Quite the opposite. They are pliable.
When the outer man is broken, a person becomes easy to deal with. They are not defensive. They do not have to be right all the time. Because their shell is no longer hard, they can finally feel what the Spirit is doing. They become sensitive to the needs of others because they are not so focused on protecting themselves.
They live in God’s presence all the time. Whether they are scrubbing a floor or driving a bus, the Spirit is free to flow through them.
Coming Broken to Leave Transformed
If you have been protecting your pride or your own way of doing things, it is time to let go. You do not need to act “holy.” You just need to hand yourself over to the Holy Spirit.
Tell Him, “Lord, for the sake of the Gospel, do what You need to do to find a way through me.” A simple prayer I have prayed every day since I got saved is, ‘may your will be done in my life Lord, not mine.’
Transformation is not about becoming a better version of your old self. It is about the old life dying so that the life of Christ can finally break through. The wounds and scars of your life are not signs of defeat. They are the places where the Spirit flows out to a thirsty world.
Are you ready to be broken?
Key Takeaways for Your Walk:
- The Goal is Release: It is not about how much you know. It is about how much of God can get out of you.
- Stop Saving Yourself: Most of our complaints come from secret self-love.
- Trust the Timing: God might break you suddenly or over many years. Don’t waste time by resisting the process.
- Look for the Light: Ask God to show you yourself as He sees you. Seeing the truth is the first step to being free.
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