Our Broken Best

Reading of the Day 6/26/25: Psalms 51-53

Psalms 51:17: The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

In the Old Testament, sacrifices used to be the best of the best. No spot, no blemish, just the best and cleanest animal that one could bring forth. I know it's not easy to talk about the reality of sacrifice, but at one point, God provided it as a way to rectify sin. But then, we look at the above Scripture..."the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit..." and that certainly doesn't sound like a "best of the best" sacrifice. In fact, it's literally the worst of the worst! Our brokenness. Our shortcomings. Our faults. Our imperfections. Our sin...THAT is what we must give!? The truth is, that was what was represented through those first animal sacrifices, but the "contrite heart" was lost in the process. Some people began to look at their spotless sacrifices as a trade-off, not at all feeling genuine sorrow or humbly thanking God for His mercy and forgiveness. That is why Jesus made a way to come directly to Him, bringing our imperfect, yet contrite hearts. He overturned the tables in the temple, where people were buying & selling sacrifices, aiming to overturn the hearts of His people back to Him. This "buying & selling" added another layer of indifference toward sin, because even the giving aspect didn't feel like a sacrifice since people were able to go buy or trade for a "good one." But HE is the only Good One! HE is the best and last Sacrifice! So, should we no longer give our best to God? Absolutely not! We should always give our best praise, our best worship, our best time & attention honoring Him...but we should not use those things as a cover-up or trade-off for our sins! Repentence is the only way we bring our broken sacrifices to Jesus! In this way, we are real with our Heavenly Father, and He forgives us for every sin we bring forth, no matter how spotted or blemished it is! Our best praise should always be coupled with our best repentence! Our broken best, with a contrite heart, is all God has ever wanted!