“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” Psalm 51:17

When we think of heartbreak, we often conjure up thoughts of past relationships, loss of loved ones, and the best laid plans that never came to fruition. We hear about it in songs and see it on the big screens, all the while hoping it will stay far from us. After all, who would long to have their heart broken?

David.

In Psalm 51, he cries out to God, desperate for forgiveness and cleansing. He grieved over his sin, and pleads to offer a sacrifice of “a broken and a contrite heart.” When David thought about God’s immense love from His holy perspective, his very heart was broken with love for others.  

I want a heart that truly breaks the way God’s does when there is injustice. I need to be in step with Him as closely as I can and have a spirit that is receptive to every nudge and whisper. I desire to have a heart after His heart. And yet…I fall so short of that. I am a daughter of Eve, reckless and sinful. But I am also His daughter, saved by grace and continually washed and renewed. He views me through the lens of Jesus’ blood and sees me spotless. He wants me to see what I am unable to see with my blinded eyes and feel what I can’t feel because of my hardened heart.

If we recognize the seriousness of our sin, we too will come to the Lord with the sacrifice of “a broken and a contrite heart.” As we consider what Jesus did for us on the cross, taking the full punishment for all our sins, then we will be overwhelmed with the wonder of grace.

Lord. Please break our hearts for the things that break Your heart. Let us really see into the eternal as we go about our day-to-day lives; give us Your perspective. We want to notice those around us who are broken and lonely and lost, and extend grace and love to them in the same way that You have loved us.

We don’t want to settle for the status quo that we have come to value, but to live in such a way that Your Kingdom is really first in our lives. This is a choice we make, Jesus, to be incarnated into those situations where we must set aside any position of comfort we may have and be ready to touch all those who need you.