A Contrite Heart

What is a contrite heart that God is looking for in us. It is a feeling or showing of deep regret, sorrow or guilt for a bad action or wrong doing. A contrite person is truly sorry and often wants to fix their mistake or ask for forgiveness. This is the kind of heart God is looking for. This is a heart that can only be created by the Holy Spirit. No amount of self-effort on our part can give us this kind of heart. Only our yielding to the Holy Spirit and giving him permission to work on our heart can bring about this contrite heart. If we manage this on our own, we will not be able to maintain it. It will just be a feeling that will go away when we feel better about ourselves.

I am not talking about condemnation, there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. This is about us willfully sinning against God and then trying to repent, hoping that He will forgive us. We are forgiven. We are the righteousness of God and we live free from sin, but our nature is being renewed day by day, so we have to keep a short account with God by coming with a heart that is willing to yield to the working of God, allowing the Holy Spirit to convict us where we are in error and then bringing about change so we never repeat the same mistake again. If we continue, we are frustrating the grace of God. The word says where sin abounds, grace abounds even more. The decision is ours to make, welcome the Holy Spirit to give you a contrite heart.

The Thriver always leaves themselves room for the Holy Spirit to work so they never get to the point where they have a calloused heart, where the Holy Spirit cannot work.