The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me
with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made
up only of rules taught by men.” Isaiah 29:13
Historically, the old testament was the law. People were taught
traditions and to follow the law which was laid out by God. These laws had
their place. It was meant to teach people how to live and protect them from
evil. But even then, there was an element of love that carried through the stitching
of this law. A deep love of God pulled at the heart string’s of the people. But many
missed that memo, and it was strictly about following the letter of the law,
commonly known today as legalism.
Then, an amazing thing happened: Jesus showed up. Can you
imagine the difficulty he had trying to get people to listen to their hearts
rather than the just traditions they had always known? This was a daunting task to
say the least. After all, Jesus was murdered because some didn’t like that he
was pulling people away from their traditional ways of doing things.
Yet, even way back in history, Isaiah was telling the people
they were simply going through the motions and missing the point.
Unfortunately, today we get caught up in this same rut. We honor God with our
mouth and lips, but are hearts are far from him.
Traditions are beautiful and
they have their place, but if we don’t learn to worship God from our hearts, we
have missed the point. We have missed the reason he died on the cross.
He came
that we might have life abundant, not the “going through the motions” life. He
came that others might know the freedom that sets the captives free!
That is
something that can only be explained in the heart. The head will never
understand it.
Is your heart far from God today? If so, ask him to revive
your soul and pour out his love on you today. He will do it!
