Broken

Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you
will not despise.”

One of the questions that we are continually asking ourselves as Christ-followers is this: what
does God want? By that we usually mean- what does He expect from us? How do I make God
happy? The mistake we make at this point is presuming that what makes us happy makes God
happy. But He is not us; therefore He does not want what we want. So what does He desire?
David says that God desires a broken and contrite heart. The Hebrew word used here for
broken literally means “broken in pieces.” Generally, when we drop a dish and it breaks into
many pieces, we gather them up and throw them into the garbage! Why? Because we consider
something that is broken in many pieces to be useless. God, however, looks at you and me and
says, “It is when you come to me broken, useless, unable to accomplish what is necessary on
your own, that you are usable by Me.” You see, as long as we feel we have value, that we have
something to contribute, then we crave the recognition, desire the glory and take the credit.
When we humble ourselves before God and see that we need Him, see that we are sinful
people, see that without Him we are nothing- that is when God is pleased. “God opposes the
proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)

-Pastor Mike