The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
— Psalm 51:17 (ESV)
Few things reveal more about you than the things that break your heart. The things that bring you to tears, that take hold of the deepest part of you and refuse to let go—they say a lot about what matters to you. Because no one likes to be broken, what our hearts break for shows what matters most to us.
It’s natural for our hearts to break over our hurt and others’ sin, especially when their wrongdoing causes our hurt. It’s supernatural for our hearts to break over our sin and others’ hurt. When our hearts are broken over those things, it’s a sign that God is working to make us more like Him, humble and compassionate.
draw near to God
Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
— James 5:11 (ESV)
Several months ago, our church’s adult Bible study group went through the book of Job. At the end of our study, when we reviewed what we had learned, the line that summed up what we drew from the book was to live before God with a broken heart.
What does that mean? And how is it a gift?
Living before God with a broken heart means living in humility, which is an important part of growth. I love the way Karen Stiller explains it:
Our great and tiny and repeated humbling is part of the nonlinear growth path of holiness. As we try to do a holy act—maybe by making some gesture of kindness toward someone or by showing extraordinary patience when we could have instead bitten someone’s head off—we might glimpse our own mixed motivation or feel disappointed in how much work it is to do the holy thing after all. We thought we were better at this than we are. We hoped it would feel better. Perhaps we grew impatient with the person we wanted to help, and then were saddened by that feeling inside us.1
Without humility, it’s hard to grow, because we don’t think we need to. If we’re satisfied with where we are spiritually and don’t feel a desire to go deeper in our relationship with God, we won’t make the effort to seek Him. Humility, a compelling awareness of our deep need and childlike dependence on the Lord, nudges us to draw closer to Him. Pride pushes Him away, but humility invites Him to draw near.
As 1 Peter 5:5-7 (CSB) says, “All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.”
A broken heart is a gift because it draws us closer to God. It also helps us grow closer to others.
bear others’ burdens
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
— Galatians 6:2 (ESV)
Not only are we called to live before God with a broken heart, but we’re also called to bear others’ burdens with a broken heart. Let yourself feel others’ hurt alongside them, and you’ll find yourself longing to pour out the comfort you’ve received in your times of need. We’re called to follow in the footsteps of “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5 NIV).
Give me Your eyes for just one second / Give me Your eyes so I can see /
Everything that I keep missing / Give me Your love for humanity /
Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted / The ones that are far beyond my reach /
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten / Give me Your eyes so I can see
— Brandon Heath and Jason Ingram, “Give Me Your Eyes”
I believe the command to bear one another’s burdens relates to the command to encourage one another (Hebrews 10:24). It’s hard to encourage someone if you don’t have a burden for them, if you don’t have a sense of the load they carry. But if you do, it’s hard not to want to come alongside them and help lighten their load by sharing an encouraging word to lift their spirit.
A broken heart softens us for the work God longs to do in our lives and in the lives of others.
how revival comes
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
— Micah 6:8 (ESV)
How is a broken heart a gift? It’s a seed of restoration in our relationship with God. It’s a sign of humility, which is key to our growth in grace. It’s an avenue of compassion that enables us to comfort others.
Ultimately, it’s how revival comes—one broken heart at a time.
- Karen Stiller, Holiness Here (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2024), 80. ↩︎
These thoughts perfectly complemented my devotions this morning, where I read about my own spiritual blindness to my sin. Humility is always key, to prevent us from self-righteousness and forgetting from where we have fallen. Thank God for his humbling grace! Thank you Hannah. 🌸
Amen to that. 🙏 Thank you for sharing!
I love how you said “It’s natural for our hearts to break over our hurt and others’ sin, especially when their wrongdoing causes our hurt. It’s supernatural for our hearts to break over our sin and others’ hurt.”
That’s some good stuff, right there!
Keep it up, Hannah!
Thanks, Alana!