A Thought for Tuesday 9/3/13

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart – these, O God, You will not despise.”  Psalm 51:17

Within the context of this psalm, the writer is stating emphatically that the Holy One’s favor cannot be bought with burnt offerings and other sacrifices brought to the altar of the Lord.  Though sacrifice is an important element of the disciple’s life in ministering to the Church by ministering to one another, it must be remembered that our Lord continually offers His Hand in lifting us up, in making whole the broken pieces of our lives.  In short, we should approach the Lord with an acute need for Him – for it could be said the Lord cannot help those who do not feel a need for the Lord.

We give of ourselves because it is our pleasure and privilege to give of ourselves for the sake of the Church and the Church’s mission in this world, but we must never come to know of our Lord as One who can be bought as if the size or scope of our gifts is a measure of our piety.  Our piety before the altar of the Lord is measured by our need for Him in our lives, in understanding we can never be made whole without Him, to be all we are created and called to be within the community of faith, the Covenant.

It is perhaps the author’s own experience coupled with an understanding of what is written in the Scriptures by which he states that the Lord’s favor is continually toward those who offer themselves to the Lord with a contrite heart, a heart filled with sorrow for the sins we commit and have committed, for the temptations which are constantly before us that threaten to separate us from Him and from one another.  A heart that realizes this spiritual reality is a heart that realizes our Lord is the only One with the strength sufficient to overcome.

Hold on to the promise of the Covenant, the Covenant by which the community lives, the Covenant by which we are truly made whole.  We must not become or remain so cocksure of salvation that we forget or take for granted our “first love” (Revelation 2:4), for it is truly the only “forever” love we can know.

Blessings,

Michael