Savior

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

We sometimes live under the false impression that God is repelled by our imperfections and brokenness. This Scripture teaches us that the opposite is true. Holy Spirit gave us these words through David, penned in precisely the moment of the king’s worst failure. Through His imperfect, broken servant, God trumpeted this message to us: His heart does not despise it when we lay bare our worst failures before Him. He is not disgusted with us. On the contrary, He gets stirred up with deep compassion and a desire to restore us to a place of wholeness.

After all, that’s what He gave His life for. Our gentle Shepherd submitted Himself to torture to redeem us. If He was willing to pour out his life unto death, what wouldn’t He do for us? When we cry out to Him in the midst of our struggles, He does not turn His face away. Instead, He bends down to rescue us, to clean us up, and to set us free.

He also assures us of this: “I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you” (Lev. 26:11, NIV). No, dear one, He doesn’t despise your brokenness. He doesn’t abhor you. He states the extreme contrary: He’s drawn to you so much that He has made you His dwelling place. He’s never leaving! Not once, even to the end of the age.

Sometimes we humans have a long struggle with a given area of weakness. We battle a particular area that seems to get us down again and again. Our spirits are longing to live right in His sight, to conquer that thing once and for all. God must be so sick of this, we think to ourselves.

We are wrong. This is His tender heart toward us: Continue reading God Is Not Sick of Your Struggle