For you have no delight in sacrifice;
if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. – Psalm 51:16-17
It simply isn’t about externals, outward things we can do, like acts of sacrifice. Those behaviors only take on true meaning when the heart is ready to be open, to be broken. We can’t earn the grace of God by doing, doing, doing.
As we begin the Lenten season we ask, how is our BEING? What is the condition of our heart? Are we willing to reflect on the distance between where we are and God’s holiness? Are we then willing to offer to God what the penitent David called an acceptable sacrifice? God’s heart longs to restore and heal our broken hearts as we turn to him in repentance.
Pastor Joe
