AN ALMIGHTY FRIEND OF THE CONTRITE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

And it will be said:

“Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of My people.”

 For this is what the high and exalted One says—He who lives forever, whose name is holy:

“I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Isaiah 57:14-15

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

One thing is certain in life.

We make lots of mistakes. Lots of them.

We’re an imperfect people when it comes right down to it, born into sinfulness and prone to fall prey to its tempting, tempting that bring us to wrong against God and others.

We all do it and we’ve gotten pretty good at it. Too good.

But here’s something we haven’t gotten as good at.

We haven’t quite gotten as good at saying we’re sorry as we have at committing misdeeds.

It’s true, right?

We easily make a mess of things in our relationship with the Lord and relationships with those He brings into our lives but when it comes to being contrite, we can’t bring it upon ourselves to be humble and admit we were in error.

Why is this so hard when we all know we are all imperfect people? What’s so hard in confessing we have made a mistake?

Perhaps because we have allowed pride to be greater than humility, silence greater than seeking reconciliation, grace, and mercy. All when we know that we serve a Lord who expects us to admit our transgressions and then turn away from doing them again.

In other words, God expects us to be contrite. In fact, He rewards it. We know because of our scripture passage today from Isaiah 57. Look again at these words here:

And it will be said:

“Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of My people.”

 For this is what the high and exalted One says—He who lives forever, whose name is holy:

“I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”  Isaiah 57:5a

Indeed, our Almighty Lord sits upon His throne in the heavens, a high and holy place where He rules and reigns over all creation. But this doesn’t mean that He is detached from us here on earth, not by any means.

Rather, He comes down to the person who has bowed down in humble confession before Him, those who have allowed their spirit to be lowered in apology for their actions, those displaying genuine contrition for the wrongs they have done.

And note the Lord doesn’t come down to chastise and rebuke this repenting person into oblivion. Rather, He comes to revive the person’s lowly spirit and resuscitate their broken heart. He seeks to pick us back up again and put our feet back onto the path of righteousness where we can walk in His ways once again while serving Him and others in accordance with His word, will, and way.

Friends, we are receiving absolutely great news from these two verses today. For the Lord God Almighty cares for you and me, in spite of our tendency to commit wrongs against Him and others. He understands our imperfections, even more than we do. And all He desires is for us to come to Him in contrition and repentance when we have allowed transgression to get the better of us.

When we do, we will experience the full truth of this word for today as the almighty friend of the contrite, God Himself, will come low to where we are to revive our hearts and spirits.

Let us all give thanks to Him for His grace, mercy, forgiveness, and restoration today and every day.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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