Isaiah 1:15-20
Verse 19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land;
We have been talking about the need to live in a way where our prayers are effective, about living in a way that pleases God so that He won’t turn His ears away from us. This passage in Isaiah was not a prophecy to the Gentiles but was spoken to God’s people who were merely going through the motions of religious life but whose hearts were not with the Lord. This is the same mistake God wants us to keep ourselves from.
God created us with the ability to make decisions instead of just making us creatures of pure instinct. We don’t have to do what we want to do for our benefit, He wanted us to be able to strive for something higher, something which will bring Him glory instead of glorifying us. He also created us this way so we could choose to serve Him the way He desires in a way of shining His light into the darkness of the world.
It was this gift of decision making which had led the people of Israel to go through the motions. While He had given His people the demand to clear the land of the Canaanites, they had chosen not to which resulted in the influence of those ungodly people in the lives of His people. Had they chosen to obey they wouldn’t have been led astray by the worshipers of false gods. False deities couldn’t hold their worshipers accountable for not living in a certain way because they only required sacrifices and offerings. It was this thinking which brought the Israelites to think that was all God required of them.
God wasn’t wanting a worship of temporal gifts, He desired an eternal relationship with the people He had chosen as His own and they/we need to worship Him in spirit and truth and that means worshiping Him in more than our actions. While it is important to make choices which reflect Him, if we simply make the choice because we know He would make it, we miss the joy of doing it out of our deep love for Him and thankfulness of who He is and what He has done.
This is the heart God wants us to obey in and this is the heart which can pray as He desires us to pray. When this is our heart we will find our prayers being more about seeking Him and His will instead of offering thanks in the hopes of getting something more from Him. Our whole devotion is His greatest desire.
Making It Personal
What is your level of devotion to the Lord? Are you just going through the motions of worship? What needs to change in your heart before you can truly worship in spirit and truth?
Making It Personal Kids
What does it mean to worship with your whole heart? Do you worship like that? What makes it hard to worship with your whole heart?
Closing Prayer
Father, we are sorry for all the times we have only gone through the motions of worship. Give us hearts which are fully focused on You and keep us from worshiping in action only. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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