KneEmail - a devotional by Mike Benson associated with Forthright Magazine
Contrite
CONTRITE IS ONE word that is used in the Old Testament to speak of brokenness...
The word suggests something that is crushed into small particles or ground into powder, as a rock is pulverized. What is it that God wants to pulverize in us? It is not our spirit He wants to break, nor is it our essential personhood. He wants to break our self-will.
When we speak of a stallion being "broken," we don't mean that someone physically breaks its legs; we mean that the horse's will has been broken -- that it is now compliant and submissive to the wishes of its rider. In the same sense, true brokenness is the breaking of self-will, so that the life Christ may be released through me. (Nancy Leigh Demoss)
KneEmail: "For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: 'I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones'" (Isa. 57:15)