sokin's devotional 39 - God desires your heart first
"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
"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks."
John 4:23
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Let your worship of God not be a routine to get good things, or check list off your heart..but do these things to get God.
I struggle with that from time to time and have to remind myself that having a quiet time with God, or even praying is not meant for the sole purpose of relieving myself of the guilt of not having done it in a while. Nor is it a way to get the approval of God so that He would suddenly start hearing and answering us. No! It is a means to get God. To center my heart on Him and Him alone. To remind myself of His promises so that the rest I find in coming to Jesus and laying my burdens on Him and trusting that His righteousness is always with me, will grant me the strength and assurance to live each new day by faith.
Anything else is false worship, and idolatry at best. We must come to Him via worship, quiet times, prayer in order to get Him, not His favor.
Before you do any of these things, pray first - thank God for the ability to even come before Him. Ask that God would be the treasure of your heart and so that in your pursuit of Him, it would be your greatest, most fulfilling joy.
God, forgive me when at times I treated my quiet times, or prayer life as a emotional salve. Forgive me when all i was really looking for was to get a check mark off a list of things to do, as if you were pleased in my "righteous" acts. Help me to remember that all this is a means, not an end. That in my pursuit of You, that my finding of You in scripture, in worship, in prayer, would be my greatest joy and delight. Be supreme in all spheres of my life - even my worship.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Isaiah 29:13
"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks."
John 4:23
---
Let your worship of God not be a routine to get good things, or check list off your heart..but do these things to get God.
I struggle with that from time to time and have to remind myself that having a quiet time with God, or even praying is not meant for the sole purpose of relieving myself of the guilt of not having done it in a while. Nor is it a way to get the approval of God so that He would suddenly start hearing and answering us. No! It is a means to get God. To center my heart on Him and Him alone. To remind myself of His promises so that the rest I find in coming to Jesus and laying my burdens on Him and trusting that His righteousness is always with me, will grant me the strength and assurance to live each new day by faith.
Anything else is false worship, and idolatry at best. We must come to Him via worship, quiet times, prayer in order to get Him, not His favor.
Before you do any of these things, pray first - thank God for the ability to even come before Him. Ask that God would be the treasure of your heart and so that in your pursuit of Him, it would be your greatest, most fulfilling joy.
God, forgive me when at times I treated my quiet times, or prayer life as a emotional salve. Forgive me when all i was really looking for was to get a check mark off a list of things to do, as if you were pleased in my "righteous" acts. Help me to remember that all this is a means, not an end. That in my pursuit of You, that my finding of You in scripture, in worship, in prayer, would be my greatest joy and delight. Be supreme in all spheres of my life - even my worship.
In Jesus' name, amen.
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