PRAYER + PRAISE
God Wants Your Heart
- Adam Cole // July 23, 2009
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These O God, You will not despise. —Psalm 51:17
God wants the heart. He does not want our words, our acts, or even our sacrifices.
In Psalm 51, the psalm where David pleads forgiveness from the Lord after sleeping with Bathsheba, he cries out in the most humble manner, crying out for mercy, crying out for deliverance. Verse 14: Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
Coming to the Lord with our hearts is a continual theme throughout His Word. Just prior to Psalm 51, we read in Psalm 50 that sacrifices don’t matter, really, because God owns the whole world; He does not need our cattle or bulls (50:9):
9 I will not take a bull from your house,
Nor goats out of your folds.
10 For every beast of the forest is Mine,
And the cattle on a thousand hills.
Relating to what Jesus spoke in Matthew 15:8-9, quoting from Isaiah 29:13, we must not let our lips declare His glory, but our hearts be far from Him:
8 These people draw near to Me with their mouth,
And[e]honor Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
9 And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.
A broken spirit implies a spirit that is ready and willing to be changed, that is ready to accept and come to the Lord in the most humble manner. Contrite implies a similar thing, being repentant and remorseful, displaying that we know where we have wronged and wanting to do something about it.
Let us then give God our hearts, as we cry out to Him over our sin and express to Him our loving affection.
Praise: That God is a God worthy of our hearts.
Prayer: That we are able to give our hearts and not just our lips.
Prayer for Today: Lord, we thank You for another day. Another day in Your Kingdom. Please accept our offering of our hearts. Let us come to You broken and contrite, ready and willing to be healed. Use us for Your glory. May we always connect on the inside with You, our Creator, Our Heavenly Father. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.