“You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts.” —Luke 16:15
In the Gospel of Luke, we find three illustrations of the contrast between a broken person and a proud, unbroken one. Interestingly, in each case, proud people are linked with Pharisees. Now when you and I think of Pharisees, we think of the “bad guys.” But in those days, the Pharisees were considered the “good guys.” Everyone looked up to them; no one questioned their spirituality or authority. It was assumed the Pharisees were closer to God than anyone else.
When Jesus came, He stripped away the theological aura the Pharisees had wrapped around themselves. He probed deeply, past their external appearance and acts of apparent devotion, right into the heart where only God can see. Repeatedly, He exposed their proud, self-righteous attitudes and motives and insisted that God rejects that kind of heart. By contrast, He pointed to lowly sinners who had been rejected by everyone else but had repentant hearts. Then and now, broken sinners are the kinds of people God chooses to save, to bless, and to help.
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Brokenness: The Heart God Revives © 2002, 2005 Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Scripture taken from The CSB
Make it Personal
Confess any sin before the Lord, and ask Him to help you have a broken and repentant heart.