<x-tad-bigger>Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":
At the heathen or pagan court of the kings of ancient Persia, if you
appeared sad, you could be put in prison. You were required to keep a
frozen smile on your face continually, and obviously jokes and comedy
were the way of life.
The Bible tells how Nehemiah, serving in the presence of the king, was
afraid because he was too honest to try to wipe that frozen smile off
his face, because he was broken-hearted for the honor of God involved
in the ruin of Jerusalem (Neh. 2:1-3). God loves honesty, even if it
means that a broken heart must express itself. We read in Psalm 34:18,
“The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth
such as be of a contrite spirit.”
Sounds very strange for 2005, doesn’t it? We suppose He is very “nigh”
unto the smiling, happy people--if you’re not singing for joy there
must be something wrong with your so-called “relationship with Jesus.”
Many assume that it’s virtually a sin to be broken-hearted. But by the
use of a poetic double negative we are assured in Psalm 51:17 of the
Lord’s special favor to the broken-hearted: “The sacrifices of God are
a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not
despise.”
Was Jesus ever broken-hearted? Not in the sense that He yielded to
sinful unbelief, no; but we read that He took upon His happy heart our
broken-heartedness. For example, w read that He was “despised and
rejected of men” and it hurt Him, for He was “a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). You can’t talk about having “a
relationship with Jesus” without relating to that aspect of His
character. The closer you come to Him the more you will appreciate
that truth. And because He was very sorrowful on His cross, we read
that the human race despised Him for it: “We did esteem Him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted” (vs. 4). “We” wanted an always smiling
Messiah, not a broken-hearted One. How about His great heart of love
today? Does He sympathize with all the sorrowing, pain-ridden people
on earth? Yes! He longs to put an end to sin and the sorrow it brings.
And the closer we come to Him, the more we will share His concern.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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