The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. – Psalm 51:17

Psalm 51 has to be one of my favorite Psalms and this passage is one of the reasons.  It is another example that tells us we don’t have to do anything to earn our salvation.  God does not demand sacrifice.  He does not demand we do anything.  All He wants is for us to realize we need Him, that we cannot survive without Him.

All of our doing – working for others, giving to charities, giving to the Church, working for the Church – should be done, not to earn any credit but, purely out of Thanksgiving for all God has done for us.  It is that joyful heart that God desires.  Yes, I know it says broken and contrite, and you are probably wondering how I got to joyful.  Well, there is only one solution to broken, and that is Jesus.  He is always right there, just waiting for you to realize how much you need Him.  And when you have Jesus, how can you be anything other than truly joyful, truly wishing to respond in thanksgiving.  Now, since we can’t give anything to God, as He already has everything, what does that response look like?  Joyfully giving to others. 

That is how the contrite heart becomes joyful.  Having realized our brokenness we respond by depending on the Lord.  He never fails to give us what we really need.  In realizing this we become joyful, thankful, and willing to serve Him by serving His creation.

We pray – Dearest Lord, we thank You that You have taught us the most important lesson – that we need You above all else, and that You have never failed us and never will. - Amen