I prepared this talk for a small bible study a few months back. The subject has both fascinated and challenged me.

When I read 'brokenness of heart' in the passage from Smith Wigglesworth's book (below), it seemed so... harsh.  I couldn't shake the words out of my head, so explored it further.

(Apologies in advance for mixed metaphors of a 'broken heart')

Thought I'd share it with you. Comments / corrections  welcome.

It's a bit long for a blog...

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

Brief of Psalm 51

David prays for pardon, verse 1, 2. Confesses his sins, verse 3-5. Prays for renewing grace, verse 6-14. Promises sincere thankfulness, verse 15-17. Prays for the whole church, verse 18, 19.


INSPIRATION

It is Satanic to feel that you are different from anybody else, that God has a special message for you, and that you are someone very particular. Every place that God brings you to in a rising tide of perfection is a place of humility, brokenness of heart, and fullness of surrender, where only God can rule in authority. It is not where you are somebody, but where God is everything and where you will be living for the exhibition of His glory.


Smith Wigglesworth
On Spiritual Gifts

COLOSSIANS 3:12


Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

A BROKEN HEART


What is a broken heart?

Common sense would suggest that you do not actively seek a broken heart. If you haven’t experienced the feeling of a broken relationship, or a death in the family, or perhaps just utterly miserable circumstances, you will at some point.

It’s not a nice situation to be in. You feel crushed. Unworthy. Useless. Out of control. Hopeless. You do not feel strong. But it’s in this state that you can be most aware and most accepting of God’s presence and power to forgive and to heal.

Jesus’ testimony while on Earth was focused on meeting people’s needs.

MARK 2:15-17

15While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

17On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

When we assume that we don’t need Jesus, whether consciously or unconsciously, it will drive us away from him.

I remember reading a book by A.W. Tozer, and he posed the question: have you ever cried for mankind?

He was referring to the desperate state of mankind without God. When we understand our sinful nature and the effect it has on our lives, our hearts will be broken. Tozer also suggests, that when we understand this sin on a much larger scale – on how it has affects us all, then our hearts will be broken again.

At the times when I have been most aware of the sin in my life, and have been most desperate to see it gone, I have also noticed new and profound ways in which God has used me in situations, in particular when I’ve been talking to someone.

2 CORINTHIANS 12:7-10


7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

To acknowledge that we are nothing without God is an almost impossible situation to understand. Can we be perfectly broken-hearted? Or is there always something, no matter how small, that refuses to be broken?

Jesus wasn’t perfectly broken hearted, because he had a perfect heart. A perfect heart is one that is wholly submitted to God’s will. A heart that cannot be wholly submitted to God’s will, and pursues our own desires, will always have to be broken. It is like a heart in conflict - our will vs. God's. Thus the heart is pulled in two directions, and it's left broken.


WE CAN'T WORSHIP WITHOUT A BROKEN HEART

MATTHEW 22:37


Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'

We can’t worship without a broken heart.

If we are to worship with all our heart, we have to offer up an impure heart. An impure heart in the presence of God is a broken heart.

Spurgeon wrote on Psalm 51:17:


So excellent is a spirit humbled and mourning for sin, that it is not only a sacrifice, but it has a plurality of excellences, and is pre-eminently God's sacrifices. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. A heart crushed is a fragrant heart.

Praise is better than sacrifice (Ps 50:14), and implying faith, penitence, and love, glorifies God. In true penitents the joys of pardon mingle with sorrow for sin.

BROKEN HEARTS & FAITH


How does it all fit together?

A broken heart has a lot to do with God’s will for us. What is one of our most basic explanations of religion in the Bible?


JAMES 1:27


Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

God’s compassion is for the poor. When we have a broken heart, we don’t become inward focused and full of self pity. In this context, a broken heart does not equate misery. Instead we share God’s compassion for the poor, and a desire to become more Christ-like. I find that this is the root answer to so many of my questions.

Matthew Henry wrote on Psalm 51:

Those who are thoroughly convinced of their misery and danger by sin, would spare no cost to reduce it. But as they cannot make satisfaction for sin, so God cannot take any satisfaction in them, otherwise than as expressing love and duty to him. The good work wrought in every true repentant, is a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, and sorrow for sin. It is a heart that is tender, and pliable to God's word. Oh that there were such a heart in every one of us!

Men despise that which is broken, but God will not. He will not overlook it, he will not refuse or reject it; though it makes God no satisfaction for the wrong done to him by sin. Those who have been in spiritual troubles, know how to pity and pray for others afflicted in like manner.

God is graciously pleased to accept this; it is instead of all burnt-offering and sacrifice. The broken heart is acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ; there is no true repentance without faith in him.

A. W. Tozer once commented that if the Holy Spirit were taken away from the New Testament church, 90 percent of what they did would come to a halt. But if the Holy Spirit were taken away from the church of today, 10 percent of what we did would come to a halt.

GALATIONS 5:22-23


But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

A broken heart is crucial to nurturing the fruits of the spirit.

We should feed faith to starve doubt. Faith is rooted in our broken hearts, as it is there we see God at work, and his awesome strength. How can we ever sit at the crossroads and decide to settle down and retire? There is no excuse, not if we are to worship God with all of our heart.

THE X-FACTOR


The real X-Factor in life is not that special quality which we should take all the credit for. It’s not about polished performances, good looks, or athletic ability.

The real X-Factor is understanding that we are nothing without God, and handing over our broken hearts for his Glory. When God works with our broken hearts, amazing things happen, and His heart is revealed, and we build His Kingdom.

Like Wigglesworth said: every place that God brings you to in a rising tide of perfection is a place of humility, brokenness of heart, and fullness of surrender, where only God can rule in authority. It is not where you are somebody, but where God is everything and where you will be living for the exhibition of His glory.