Sincere Worshiping

Let me start out asking; do you worship the Lord in vain?  In other words, do you worship the Lord but your heart is far from Him?

This is what Isaiah 29:13-14 says, “Therefore the Lord said: ‘Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.’”

Do you worship God honestly and sincerely or has your worship become routine and meaningless?  At this time, the people claimed to belong to God but their disobedience told another story and spoke of just going through the motions.  Religion had ceased to become a reality and their worship was not genuine worship.    Often we slip into routine forms of worship; sometimes we don’t even think about the words we are singing and other times we may worship but our minds on what is going on around us or a multitude of other things.  All of us can fall into hypocrisy at times and we can slip into routine forms of worship that mean nothing to us.  We need to be careful that we worship in all sincerity and in Spirit and in truth.

The Bible relates to this subject in Matthew 15, speaking of the religious leaders of that day, read verses 7-9, “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

If our hearts are far from the Lord while we are worshiping, it means nothing.  If we hide sin in our hearts then come before the Lord in worship, without confessing them and repenting, are we pleasing the Lord?  Of course not, we are wasting our time because our sin separates us from the Lord.  If we live like the world all week, conforming to it, and then come before the Lord on Sunday to worship, we act like hypocrites and deceive ourselves.  It is not enough to look and act religious; we need to be sincere in our words and actions.  These religious leaders knew a lot about the Lord and even about His teachings, but they didn’t know Him on a personal level.  We will always be hypocrites if all we do is know about the Lord and what He claimed but not go further and deeper, so we can have a personal relationship with Him.  

Read what Jesus said about true worship when He talked to the woman at the well in Samaria in John 4:20-24, “‘Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’”

The only way we can worship in Spirit and truth is to have the Holy Spirit within us, and that only happens at rebirth, or when we are born-again and the only way it will be acceptable is when we are truly sincere.

In John 3, Jesus talked to a man named Nicodemus, a Pharisee and ruler of the Jewish people, about being born-again.  He said this to him in verses 1-7, “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’

Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’

Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’

Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”

If you are not born-again but would like to be; humble yourself before the Lord and ask him to forgive your sins and to be your Lord and Savior and to transform your life then let Him fill you with His peace, love and joy and go share what He has done with others.  Read John 3, the whole chapter, asking the Holy Spirit to teach you the truth then continue to read the book of John and so on.  

I have given you something to think about, I hope you will!  If this is speaking about you, I hope you will respond in a positive way and do the right thing, the choice is yours.  May you have a super day!  May the good Lord bless you and yours!!