How is your heart?
1 – Elated for no noble reason?
2 – Doleful in virtue of the consequences of sins committed (as Judas)?
3 – Contrite and broken?
The spirit should be contrite and broken at the same time.
Without contrition, brokenness is terrible (how can be seen below and in item 2 above):
• “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but crookedness in it is a break in the spirit.” (Pro 15:4);
• “A merry heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.” (Pro_15:13).
• “A merry heart does good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.” (Pro 17:22);
• “Behold, My servants will sing for joy of heart, but you will cry for sorrow of heart, and will howl because of a breaking of spirit.” (Isa_65:14).
Detail: contrition is the pungent feeling of repentance for sins committed (by virtue of being offence to the Creator), not for fear of punishment, but for having trampled the Son of God, having counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and having insulted the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:29).
So have a week full of the strength of the Creator (which comes to us when we make His heart happy – Nehemiah 8:10). However, don’t forget that this only can be fulfilled after having the heart circumcised by the brokenness and contrition worked by the Holy Spirit (Deut 10:16; Jer 4:4; Joel 2:12,13). So, don’t mourn if you have to go through this treatment: it is a proof that you are a chosen of the Creator (Prov 3:11,12; Hebrews 12:5-11; 1Peter 4:12-19).
1 – Elated for no noble reason?
- “Shall horses run on the rock? Will one plow there with oxen? For you have turned justice into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock; you who rejoice in nothing, who say, Have we not taken horns to ourselves by our own strength?” (Amos 6:12,13).
2 – Doleful in virtue of the consequences of sins committed (as Judas)?
- “Now I rejoice, not that you were grieved, but that you grieved to repentance. For you were grieved according to God, so that you might suffer loss by nothing in us. For the grief according to God works repentance to salvation, not to be regretted, but the grief of the world works out death.” (2Cor 7:9,10);
- “Then he who had betrayed Him, seeing that He was condemned, sorrowing, Judas returned the thirty pieces of silver again to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned, betraying innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? You see to that. And he threw the pieces of silver down in the temple and departed. And he went and hanged himself.” (Mat 27:3-5).
3 – Contrite and broken?
The spirit should be contrite and broken at the same time.
- “For all those My hand has made, and all those exist, says Jehovah. But to this one I will look, to the afflicted and contrite spirit, and the one who trembles at My Word.” (Isa_66:2).
- “My spirit is broken, my days are ended, the graves are ready for me.” (Job 17:1);
- “Jehovah is near to the broken-hearted; and saves those who are of a contrite spirit.” (Psa_34:18);
- “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” (Psa_51:17).
Without contrition, brokenness is terrible (how can be seen below and in item 2 above):
• “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but crookedness in it is a break in the spirit.” (Pro 15:4);
• “A merry heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.” (Pro_15:13).
• “A merry heart does good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.” (Pro 17:22);
• “Behold, My servants will sing for joy of heart, but you will cry for sorrow of heart, and will howl because of a breaking of spirit.” (Isa_65:14).
Detail: contrition is the pungent feeling of repentance for sins committed (by virtue of being offence to the Creator), not for fear of punishment, but for having trampled the Son of God, having counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and having insulted the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:29).
So have a week full of the strength of the Creator (which comes to us when we make His heart happy – Nehemiah 8:10). However, don’t forget that this only can be fulfilled after having the heart circumcised by the brokenness and contrition worked by the Holy Spirit (Deut 10:16; Jer 4:4; Joel 2:12,13). So, don’t mourn if you have to go through this treatment: it is a proof that you are a chosen of the Creator (Prov 3:11,12; Hebrews 12:5-11; 1Peter 4:12-19).