Forgiven

Forgiven

Psalms 51:17

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

To be honest, I’ve been waiting this whole series to get to this verse. I think this verse has impacted me more in my 67 years of living than any other. It’s the work broken. That’s what does it for me.

We talked about being broken already. Psalms 51 is about broken laws, broken relationships, broken homes and broken bones but that’s not what pleases God. God wants a broken spirit.

A broken spirit as a human would that no longer has a sense of self. A broken spirit and a contrite heart are an indication of someone that has reached the end of self and arrives at the “You are Lord. Please forgive me and take over from here” stage of life.

The Hebrew word Shabar means to shatter something, or to crush it. It means that all that is you -your ego, pride, self-worth and determination - must be met head on and removed. That heart must be completely emptied of you and place God on His rightful throne.

In Exodus 30, God “broke” Pharoah in order to humble Egypt. In Leviticus 26, God “breaks” the pride of power in His own people. That word occurs about 176 times in the Old Testament. It tells us that God hates pride and loves humility. I’ve heard it said this way:

“God’s plan for you is humility. Plan B is humiliation.”

God will humble you one way or another. Every knee will bow before Him, one day. He has found so many ways to humble me in this lifetime that I am absolutely convinced that the one true purpose of every life is to give us time on this earth to learn humility before our God.

I spend every day learning how to humble myself and exalt Him. I want to kneel and bow before Him and be granted the privilege of standing rather than standing in His presence and being humbled to my knees.

He is Lord. I am not.