8/18/2019 L07 - Directed Study

1/2

 The demand for oering a broken heart and a contrite spirit is dierent than

the precursor requirement set forward by the Law of Moses. In fact, in many ways it

is more dicult, yet deeper and more meaningful. The obious dierence is that

one is more tangible, especially in terms of conduct. The Law of Moses dealt with

minimum requirements that, if met, would reward the indiidual with blessings.

!oweer, this meant that it was entirely conceiable for an indiidual to ful"ll thephysical requirements without eer modifying their inner character.

 This became a ma#or issue for many indiiduals, especially eident around

the life of $hrist. Many indiiduals within the church had become more hypocritical

than eer before. This meant that indiiduals held ful"llment of formal requirements

in higher regard than personal conduct and inner character. %hen the Lord came,

!e ruled the Law of Moses to be obsolete, and instituted a higher law. This law dealt

more with the sancti"cation of one&s inner character, as one&s inner character would

help de"ne his'her conduct.

 The requirement of a broken heart and contrite spirit are actually two

separate requirements, een though they may sound similar. %hen we lookindiidually at the two, we can see that one has to do with the physical, while the

other deals with spiritual changes. If we consider the implications of such a concept,

we may conclude that this commandment re(ects the need to unify the will of the

body and the spirit, with humility being at the center of this change. %hile they both

deal with feelings of sorrow and remorse, there is one key dierence between them.

) broken heart signi"es damage. %hen one considers the concept of

brokenness, they consider actual in#ury, impairment, wounds, and loss. )s far as the

heart is concerned, this has a connotation of an in#urious relationship, or perhaps

een a broken one. This seems like an odd request of an indiidual who deeply

desires that we hae a good personal, frequent, and een intimate relationship with

!im. !oweer, *od asks this of us. I beliee the key to understanding thisrequirement lies in the second.

) contrite spirit doesn&t quite signify damage. Instead, it demands remorse

more than required reparation. It is interesting that *od requires that our physical

seles be broken while our spirits remain whole, but remorseful. To me, this implies

that our physical relationships be placed secondary to those of the spirit. +ur hearts

represent desire, and most often in the physical sense. If we are to consider that the

Lord wants us to lay up our physical desires and sacri"ce our physical relationships

to not only social cohorts but also tangible treasures and possessions, it may be

easy to see how it signi"es a broken heart. ) contrite spirit, howeer, gies no such

feeling of physical detachment. Instead, it signi"es a sort of attachment, but tospiritual things. $ontrition signi"es remorse and a resole to repair relationships. It

has a connotation of an apologetic attitude. This is "tting, as one with this attitude

is one with whom the spiritual relationship is the priority.

I can remember a time when this echange came to the forefront of my

personal pursuit. I was on my mission, and after quite some time in the MT$, I found

myself in the "eld. I was placed on a remote island in the south paci"c with a natie

companion. I did not feel ery comfortable at all with either of the new languages

8/18/2019 L07 - Directed Study

2/2

required of me. I felt inadequate due to my personal physical ability to sere the

people. !oweer, as I grew spiritually, I learned that I needed to detach my own

self-epectation from the physical capabilities, and rather focus solely on *od&s

epectation. I found that the Lord enriched my own physical ability to sere and

accomplish, despite neer truly changing my conduct nor actions. My ability in the

languages grew more slowly than did my spiritual resole. )s my capabilities grew, Inoticed that I once again began to rely more heaily on my physical capabilities.

 This pattern has continued een up until now.

 The Lord epects that we trade the physical requirements for inner character.

)s we focus on that which is inside, we begin to naturally empower our outward

conduct. )s we forget our physical capacities to accomplish our duties but attempt

them anyways, our spiritual capacities will "ll in our weakness, bringing us closer to

*od and our own personal desires.