LEARNING DAILY

 

Isaiah 29:13, “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.”

 

I have been reading through the prophetic writing of those God used to warn His people to live their lives according to His desires and those warnings consistently called the people to look to God not worthless idols and the ways of foreign nations. I think of the writings in this blog and I pray you never get tired of being encouraged to walk a narrow way, God’s way and His desire to live according to His Word and not the ways of men and the world. We live in a dark, evil and unrighteous world that is not moving toward God. The writings and words spoken by the Old Testament prophets speak loud and clear to those of us in 2023! The Word of God still speaks for people to repent of their sinfulness, be forgiven by Jesus Christ, and to be changed by the Holy Spirit in order to walk into God’s kingdom for eternity.

 

Isaiah was speaking to “people who were coming before Him in prayer, worship, song and praise, even though their hearts were not committed to Him or His Word. They acted as if God’s revelation and His righteous standards were not obligatory. Instead of cherishing God and His Word, they filled their lives with the religious rituals and traditions taught by their leaders, and in false security lived for themselves” (Life in the Spirit Study Bible).  I wonder if that is still true today. I wonder if people praise and honor God with their lips, while they have no real love for God and the way He tells His people to walk – on a narrow way. When the church service is over, do they seek the pleasure of sin, want everyone to see just how great they are and live to satisfy their own wants and desires. Isaiah was stating the problem for the people of Judah was their hypocrisy – they were saying the right things, but their hearts were far from God.

 

The heart is the center of one’s will and from where decisions are made; when we are told to love “with all our hearts” we are being told to love with everything we have within us. When God told Isaiah that “the people’s hearts were far from Me,” He meant they had chosen to be loyal to something(s) other than Him. They had begun to be loyal to man-made things and worship; they worshipped, but their heart was not in it. As Christians we need to be very careful about going through motions of worship and outward appearance of following the basics of walking with God, but without a real relationship with God. Let me be straightforward. When a person goes to church every Sunday but forgets God the rest of the week that person is “honoring God with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me”.

 

This verse from Isaiah is a reminder that rules, rituals, man-made ideas do not please God. God wants His people “to love Him with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their mind, and with all their strength” (Mark 12:30). He expects from those who receive His salvation their desire to be obedient to Him, diligently seek Him and to bring honor and glory to Him above all else. That includes our total loyalty and commitment to Him; it is the desire to be constantly in His presence and be in fellowship with Him. What an honor it is to be called a child of God! We need to act like one.