There are times that I really don't want to get up early and write this blog. Sometimes, it's because I didn't get much sleep the night before and, yes, that was the case last night. But, other times, it's because I don't want to post about my morning devotional reading. This morning, having finished in Jude, I cast around in Scripture and innocently landed in Isaiah 1. "Oh no...Lord, please don't ask me to write about this. I just really don't want to."
The text is Isaiah 1:11 - 20.
You know, I love going to church on Sundays and worshipping God. Whether it is through singing praises, praying, studying in Sunday School or hearing great preaching, I just adore gathering with my brothers and sisters to encourage one another and lift up Jesus through worship. It is the best way to start the week.
Why do you gather together and worship God with other like-minded people? What is your motivation?
Through Isaiah, God is speaking to His people, who are making a mockery of Him through their worship activities. I was reading The Message version this morning. Dr. Peterson translates so vividly! In verse 13, God says, "Quit your worship charades. I can't stand your trivial religious games!"
That's pretty strong, isn't it? Why in the world would God say that?
The dictionary defines "charade", a word with French roots, as "an absurd pretense intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance."
It's not that He does not crave and desire our sincere worship. He does.
But, the reason He is rejecting the worship and church trappings in Isaiah 1 is found in verses 15-17:
"When you spread our your hands in prayer I hide my eyes from you;
even when you offer many prayers, I'm not listening.
Your hands are full of blood.
Wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight.
Stop.Doing.Wrong!
Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless.
Plead the case of the widow.
These people were practicing sin in their Monday-Saturday lives, and then coming to lift blood-covered hands in worship on Sunday.There are people, believers and non-believers alike, who stay away from churches because they know their hearts are filled with sin. You know what? They are more honest than believers who go to church to worship, knowing that they are walking around, covered in unconfessed sin.
This passage is a heavy, convicting indictment. It is very uncomfortable.
Yesterday, my pastor was preaching about revival. He made the point that if Christians want revival, then it must start with US getting honest with God and with each other, confessing our sins, seeking earnestly to make sure that our hearts are pure, that our actions are holy. Revival always starts in the true Church of Jesus Christ!
I confess that this takes a vigilance that I've often ignored when preparing for worship. I typically spend no time repenting of my own sins before I go to church to pray over the sins of my fellow men. I am much too concerned with "looking good" at church, signing up for this and that, "serving".
Our "service" is a odious, stinky "sacrifice" if we are living in disobedience to His commands.
God wants our willing obedience before He wants anything else. We cannot walk resplendent, while slogging through mud holes of sin. You may have heard this expression: "A non-Christian leaps into sin and loves it. A Christian lapses into sin and loathes it." That is the way it should be. But, sometimes, as believers, we hold onto our secret grudges, our "pet" sins that lessen our effectiveness for God.
I ask you this day: is there anything that you are holding onto, that stands between you and God? Is there any practice, any habit, and deep wound that you are bitter about? Satan will use these things to keep you from the full, abundant blessings of God until you lay those things down at Jesus' feet and walk away and leave them there. "A broken and contrite heart, O Lord, You will not despise!" (Ps. 51:17)
In J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy, there is a character named Gollum, who is crazed from holding on to a magical ring, to which he is enslaved and claims to be unable to live without. He calls it his "precious". "We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precious!" Practicing sin does that to people as well. Habitual sin enslaves.
Don't let anything stand between you and God. When our hearts have been washed by His forgiveness daily (and most of the time several times daily we need to confess to Him), it is THEN He receives our worship. It is THEN He lavishes His blessings on us (vs. 19).
O Holy One! May we fall on our faces before You, in brokenness, confession, repentance, acknowledging our total dependence on You. Help each of us to see the sins "that so easily entrap us" and to "lay them aside" (Hebrews 12:1), as part of the ongoing spiritual war in which as believers we are engaged. Remind us that it is only then that we can offer our worship to You and walk in unhindered fellowship with You....resplendent! In the mighty name of Jesus, amen!
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