Scripture
“These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
~Isaiah 29:13, NIV
Quote
God is not moved by the quality of our voice but the sincerity of our heart.
~Chris Tomlin
It is easy to allow worship to become a mere habit. We go through a liturgy and never stop to think about what we are actually attempting to do. Have you ever been engaged in a conversation where the person you are speaking with is present, possibly looking you in the face, but you have the feeling that their mind is somewhere else. Their heart is not beating with your heart. In reality, they are not focused on you at all. Worship is not about offerings, songs, sermons, or even prayers. Worship is about focus on Christ. To worship is to cease from our worldly activities and to focus solely on our Savior. Getting the proper focus is easier said than done but one thing is certain, the Lord does not appreciate pretense in worship.
If we humans can tell when another person is distracted, how much more can the LORD detect pretense and our lack of focus on Him. In order to worship, we have to lose ourselves in Him. It is highly unlikely that we will have any quality of worship if our focus is on ourselves. This makes worship difficult for humans. We are so egocentric that it is difficult for us to stop thinking about ourselves long enough to focus on Jesus. The Jews got in a habit of simply going through the motions and the LORD told them, “I do not need the bulls from your barns or the goats from your pens for all the animals of the forest are mine…
If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for all the world is mine and everything in it. I don’t want the meat of bulls or the blood of goats. What I want from you is your true thanks; I want your promises fulfilled. I want you to trust me in your times of trouble, so I can rescue you and you can give me glory.
Bill Smith was really low when I left last night. Pray for Bill and Family. I will be headed that way in a few minutes. Don’t forget to go vote! Have a great day and thanks for reading the blog.