Day 8 - Holiness Lives in Brokenness

SCRIPTURE:

Isaiah 57:15

“For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the broken and to revive the heart of the contrite.” 

DEVOTIONAL:

The God Isaiah worshipped was totally different than the gods of surrounding nations. This God, the only true God, didn’t demand human sacrifice like Molech, the god of the Moabites, or Baal the god of the Canaanites. He didn’t desire mindless sacrifices. Isaiah’s God and our God, requires an obedient, broken and surrendered heart. 

What transformed me: Here is the amazing part. God is holy and lives in a place of purity, perfection and wonders beyond comprehension. And yet.... He descends and takes up residence in a broken and contrite heart. Holiness occupies brokenness. His desire is to bring restoration. His purpose is to revive a worn thin, exhausted, and burned out heart. 

He is not the God of performance. He is not the God of polished religion. He doesn’t require an ever ascending staircase of deeds to reach Him. The hands that created the world will reach down and gently lift you up, brush you off and hold you firmly. The same God who breathed life into the dust of the earth, breathes life into your brokenness. 

Maybe you need to be reminded that God is not too high or far that He wouldn’t meet with you today and breathe upon your dryness a breath of hope, new days and fresh promise.