Psalms 51, the Heart, and Getting What I Want

^"16For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. ¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. ¹⁸Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; ¹⁹then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar." Psalms 51:16-19

When I first read this while actually paying attention to what I was reading, it freaked me out. "But that's how they did things back then, having burnt sacrifices to attone," I thought. It messed with my head because that's how things were supposed to have changed in the New Testament. I then realized what people meant when they say that God is the same and is unchanging. It's always been about the heart, He's just changed how we interact with Him. Having a right heart is inescapable when wanting to deal and commune with God.

My dear friend Whitteny asked me how I communicated with God yesterday which was a question I'd never been asked before. My answer was something to the effect of "I thank Him a lot." It takes a certain amount of humility to thank someone. When thanking someone, you're showing your appreciation for something that someone did or something that happened that you didn't or couldn't have done yourself. Just the same, thanking God for whatever He's done is acknowledging that He's done something for you that you didn't do which means you've relied on Him to some degree. This is one way of showing humility while also showing your love and appreciation for God.

The Psalm above talks about a greater humility. Of course, it's possible to thank someone while not really meaning it. The broken and contrite heart is endlessly thankful and appreciative for anything that comes it's way. This Psalm says that God doesn't want our actions, but wants our heart to be accessible. Being contrite can be defined as being remorseful of our past sin and being resolved to avoid future sin. Basically, that's all there is to it. Yearning for God and avoiding sin not because sin is bad, but because it separates you from God. Once you do that, then He'll be happy with all the things you do for him.

I think I can say that I love God. Neither I, nor anyone else will be able to say that we loved God as much as we could, there's always something more we could have done. The important part, however, is having our heart in a good place, which is attained by following the above scripture. I'm at a point now where I'm tired of not experiencing what God has for me, not being obedient to His will for me. The thing that I've realized is that things are oftentimes not handed to people. To be obedient, one must pursue his (or her) destiny, for a lack of a better term.

In the Men's Fraternity meetings I've been attending, it was posed that Adam's sin didn't lie in eating the fruit so much as failing the task God set before him of protecting his wife and failing to own up to what he did. Let me pose this, then: if sin is moreso failing to fulfill God's plan for us, then having a broken and contrite heart, yearning to "go and sin no more," the heart would be filled with a desire to have what God has set for us. Of course, this is not the sole way of sinning, but it's a bigger part of it than we give it credit for.

All that said, I'm taking hold of my destiny. I've said before that I don't believe in coincidences, and I still don't, but I also don't believe in fate, or to use a more theological term, predestination. Obviously, it's possible to not make it to a destination you have plans to get to if you don't get in your car and drive there. Just the same, the future is not already written and has the chance of going differently than we or God has planned. There are some things that will come to pass, regardless, otherwise God wouldn't be God, but it's all too possible for a person to not live up to their destiny. Again, I'm taking hold of my destiny, my calling. I will have what I want and I will only do so with the help of God. But by God, I will have what is set for me.

Love,
Colton

P.S. I could go on this for a long time, talking about so many aspects of it, but I will leave it here, for here is enough to ponder. Also, I skipped breakfast to write this and it's almost lunch time.