In Matthew 15:8 Jesus is quoting God’s words through the prophet Isaiah when He says, “These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me…”
I was at a conference a short time ago when a pastor friend was impressing me with his Kindle, e-book reader. He is a bit of a techno-wizard, and was unsuccessfully taking the time to try to bring me into the 21st century. I must admit, though, it was a kind of nifty gadget that was used for reading books that have been converted into a digital, electronic format. The screen is really easy to read, much easier to read than the average computer. And, you can change the size of the text, which is really helpful for those of us who have difficulty with small print. The thing is only about the size of a paperback book, and a little more than a quarter inch thick,…and, it will hold a large number of average size books. I suppose you could have several different versions of the Bible…a dictionary… and probably even a set of encyclopedias on it if you wanted to. You would be able to quickly and easily access loads of information just by touching a couple of buttons. It is amazing!
That electronic gadget can spout out words…even really good words…quicker than most of us can read them. The very Word of God could come flying at us at a hundred miles per hour on a Kindle. But, in the digital world…to that gadget,…those words are all just strings of zeroes and ones in binary language. They have no real meaning to the machine …they have no real value to that digital marvel,… because, just like the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz,… it doesn’t have a heart.
Which brings me to this thought. Have you ever find yourself mindlessly floating through worship? Do you ever find the words just flooding out of your mouth when suddenly it dawns on you that you are disengaged from worship, and your heart has been left behind? Of course that has never happened to me…at least not since the last time it happened.
We can easily pile up lots of information…words,…music,…prayers,…and even scriptures… and because our heart is not in it, we miss the point of it all. First and foremost, God is looking for our hearts. He’s not interested in a bunch of nice-sounding words flooding forward while our hearts are far away from Him. I don’t know about you, but I don’t ever want the words of the Scripture “These people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me…”… said about me.
Lord, help me as I worship You today. Help me to take inventory of my inner condition, making sure that first and foremost I love You. May Your Spirit ever remind me that nothing else is sufficient to motivate my Christian life. Grant it that my words, thoughts, and heart, never be far from You, Lord. Amen
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