A Contrite Heart

 

Imagine this scenario, a woman is very upset with her 16 year old daughter because she left her room very untidy in the morning before leaving the house, her daughter responds ‘mum I am sorry but I was in a hurry, I had a 9am appointment, and besides I don’t like using that broom we have to sweep, it’s too short we need to get a better broom’. The day after her room is left untidy again, this time even worse than the previous day. What do you think happened? Maybe her mum’s rebuke didn’t even make her remorseful, so it didn’t activate any change? but what if she cleaned up the room the next day, but grudgingly? It still didn’t activate any change because the change must come from the heart. If the heart is not right, then the actions will not be right.

Isaiah 66: 2 ‘“For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist,” says the Lord. But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.’

God desires to dwell with people who have a contrite and a humble spirit.  What is a Contrite Spirt? A contrite Spirit is one that is remorseful for their sins and willing to change. A contrite heart is a heart that is willing to do anything God asks them to do and ceases to do things their own way. It means that if our hearts are not contrite and unwilling to repent God’s presence cannot abide with us.

Psalm 51: 17 ‘The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart- These O God , you will not despise.’ This is the sacrifice that God demands from us, a heart that is willing to change and that is willing to do things God’s way and not its own way. Which means we can go to church every single day, pray for 100 hours, and give to the poor but if we don’t have a contrite heart, it is of no use.

God wants us to truly repent of our sins with a broken, contrite and crushed heart one that knows that without God it cannot be fixed, the one that makes us see our sins the way they truly are and the filth they produce in us and humbly pray to God to help us, this is the only way we can receive real transformation and healing in our hearts.

Isaiah 57:15 ‘For thus says the High and Lofty One, Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the sprit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.’

A contrite heart dwells in the High and Holy place in the presence of God, oh what a place to be, wouldn’t you rather be in that place? I certainly would. Do we justify our wrong choices? Make excuses for making them or shift the blame? A contrite heart agrees totally with God about the evil it is. May God open our eyes to see our sins the way He sees it and humbly ask for His mercy.