Psalm 34:18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Here are three passages that describe the Lord working within the lives of those with a broken and contrite heart. A heart that is humbled and broken before God is a heart that is ready to receive truth and instruction. The word broken in Psalm 34 means just that, broken or crushed. The Hebrew word contrite means basically the same thing: broken, crushed, crushed down, or crushed to pieces. Life dishes out its fair share of brokenness, but how do we commune with the Lord in our brokenness, and what effect is it having upon us? Broken dreams, broken promises, broken relationships, and hundreds of other things can bring about broken heartedness.
The Lord allowing us to be broken can produce a healthy spirit of lowliness and contriteness. “The inward part of a man is said to be broken and crushed when his sinful nature is broken, his ungodly self-slain, his impenetrable hardness softened, his haughty vainglorying brought low, – in fine, when he is in himself become as nothing, and when God is everything to him.” Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament Our God knows us, we are His children, He will stop at nothing to shape us into His Sons image, Romans 8:29, and He is using the shaping influence of brokenness to influence you.
We know that humans consider the outward appearance, but God always looks upon the heart. God looks beyond the flesh and into the inner man, a person’s heart, and delights with a contrite, humbled, broken heart. God knows that a heart that is contrite is a heart that is willing to be changed, and He understands our ways of pride and selfishness, our unwillingness to be broken so that we might be reshaped and refashioned into the image of His glorious Son. Our Father is near and “with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit”. He is not abandoning you; He is shaping you. He looks for a broken, contrite heart He can shape for His Glory. He can’t revive the spirit of the proud, or that takes the things of God for granted, or that weeps insincere tears of repentance, or lives for self. God wants a contrite and humble heart, a heart given completely and wholly over to Him. Could it be that you are traveling the road of hardship because you have been unbending and unwilling to submit to Him. Could it be that you are cold spiritually and just floating along in life? Could it be that you are using the hardships of life against God, perhaps not in total rebellion, but thinking that God is not interested in you, not present, or not concerned.
Many Christians today float through life with no purpose, wanting only to enjoy what pleasures life might bring them along the way. Many Christians think that life should be without trouble or difficulties now that they are a Christian. It is almost as if they blame God for their circumstances, as if they believe God is allowing them to be mistreated. God in fact is molding them, lovingly showing them His grace is sufficient. The believer that floats through life with no sensitivity to commit to true repentance and a contrite heart, find themselves caught up in the circumstances rather than seeing God in the circumstances. Life is a walk of repentance because we are always struggling with our sin. Life is a walk of continually renewing and strengthening our relationship with God as a humble believer. Stop now and look at your life. “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13, are you missing that? Are you living so much in the circumstances that the circumstances are overshadowing the fact that He is working in you for His “good pleasure”?
Could it be that God is trying to break you and mold you? Could it be that God has allowed you to be where you are today so that you might be where He wants you to be tomorrow? Ask yourself these questions. Have I become hard-hearted and insensitive toward the Lord? Have I substituted my will, and my way of thinking above the Lord’s? Have I become proud and will not turn to others for help? Have I become unwilling to be submissive to spiritual things? Have the circumstances caused you to be less sensitive toward God? Has the doldrums taken over, the Christian life become stagnant? What is God up to in order to wake you up? Take time and ask yourself questions and pray over those questions. Ask God to awaken you and humble you so that you may be shaped by Him. Remember “the LORD is nigh” to those with a broken heart. Could it be that the distance between you and the Lord is how far you are from having a contrite and broken heart? He is allowing brokenness in your life so that He may shape you and you have become distant, stagnant and unresponsive, days and weeks and months have gone by and you are still the same. Stop now and take some inventory of your life, is God really everything to you? Just take some quiet time and simply talk to God, stay in the struggle and draw closer to Him.