Chapter-a-Day Isaiah 29
The Master said: "These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their hearts aren't in it. Because they act like they're worshiping me but don't mean it.... Isaiah 29:13 (MSG)
Sometimes, I step back and try to see a bigger picture. I look at my life and everyone in it like a Where's Waldo book in which everyone I know is walking around on one big opened, panoramic page. I look and see believers who say all the right things and are sure to be seen in the right evangelical circles and settings, but then I listen as they make contemptuous observations about others and pass judgment as if their butts were big enough to occupy the Judgement Seat of Christ. I see the blissfully ignorant. I see hard-hearted standing in their own form of judgmental obstinance. I see the runaway. I see the rebellious. I see the broken, and I see genuine hearted searching.
Looking at the broad mental picture of these different individuals and groups, I remind myself that it was the religious establishment - the good, and upright followers of God that received the lion's share of Jesus' angry rebuke. While it was the sinful, the broken, and the hard hearted who received a generous portion of Jesus' time, attention, love and grace.
Where am I in this big picture? If you look for me, where will you find Tom? Am I with the judgmental religious establishment? Am I found in the picture where I'm most comfortable? Am I found where Jesus would be (and is)?
but their hearts aren't in it.
Because they act like they're worshiping me
but don't mean it,
How many times do you show up for worship but don't really want to be there? I have had that quite a few times. Do you allow God to see those raw emotions? I used to put on my "game face" for church. I don't anymore. If I am struggling I allow myself to worship God in that vulnerable state. Know what? He always meets me right where I'm at. He appreciates that authentic worship more than a fake.
Posted by: kr | April 28, 2010 at 09:36 AM