The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.-Psalm 51:17
But there is danger in believing that feeling bad about our sin is all the Lord is asking for. For example, I remember many times that I try to force myself to feel sorrow over sin. My conscience was seared (The seared conscience) and I just didn't feel sorrowful like I had in the past. So I tried to manufacture it. I tried to force myself to cry, I prostrated myself and pleaded and begged for an escape. All the while I was holding on to the sin, not truly wanting to let it go.
Another danger is mistaking self-loathing for true contrition. Self-loathing, excessive sorrow and relentless guilt are "secret egotism, a feeling of our "ego" being trampled upon; an anger that is directed at our self, which then wreaks revenge because it is exposing itself and is put to shame--a thing that is cannot tolerate."* We believe we are showing contrition but we are actually pitying ourselves, soothing our consciences, and coddling our wounded pride. The focus is all on us!
A third danger is believing that contrition is promising God we will do better through self-driven effort (Willpower is insufficient). Rather than listening to God we tell Him how sorry we are and then we tell Him all the things we are going to do better. We lay out our plans and ask for His support.
A fourth danger is believing that contrition means dumping the responsibility on God. We tell ourselves that we must totally rely on Him, but we define total reliance as sitting around and waiting for Him to rescue us. In reality we are ignoring, excusing and being lazy, but we tell ourselves that we are giving it to God. Have you considered that God has possibly decided that this is your responsibility!
So what does the Lord desire? A BROKEN and contrite heart. Brokenness is the key.
*except taken from http://saintandrewgoc.org/home/2015/1/15/many-confess-few-repent.html
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