Devotional: Nothing But Brokenness

(first appeared May 5, 2013)

 

I will admit, at the end of this week, I am completely at the end ... of many things.

It feels right now like there’s nothing left, to give others, even to give God.

What do we do in those moments?

With this heart open wide

From the depths from the heights

I will bring a sacrifice

With these hands lifted high

Hear my song hear my cry

I will bring a sacrifice

I will bring a sacrifice
I lay me down

I’m not my own

I belong to you alone

Lay me down

Lay me down

(Read more: CHRIS TOMLIN - LAY ME DOWN LYRICS )

As the song from the Passion conference says, we are the sacrifice ... we lay ourselves down.

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart ...”

I learned something years ago about that word “contrite.” It often gets translated humble, but it comes from a Hebrew word that gives the sense of something crushed and ground to powder.

When the blows of life don’t just break us, but crush us, grind us down until there’s nothing recognizable of our heart ... then that itself is our sacrifice to the Lord.

Why? Why is our brokenness that which God seeks as our most precious sacrifice?

My theory is ... it’s then that we see most clearly how desperately we need Him. And it’s then that He promises to be near us, to save us, that if we bring Him our broken and crushed selves, He will not despise the sacrifice.

I suppose, then, if God has allowed me to come to this place of brokenness ... it’s because I needed it. Not because He doesn’t love me, or care about the difficulty of the situation, but because whatever He’s doing in me would not be accomplished any other way.

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears,
And delivers them out of all their troubles.

The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit. (Psalm 34:17-18)

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise. (Psalm 51:17, both NKJV)