Passage: Matthew 15:8,9
"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men."
These people-Pharasees
Oh man this whole passeage hits home.
Jesus is rebuking the Pharasees after they try and trap Jesus with their questions. He calls them hipocrits for following their traditions and laws over the commandments of Christ. These men took the traditions of the time and elevated them to a spot where only God's law should have been.
It first talks about how they honor Jesus with their lips, but not their hearts. So often it seems this world gets caught up with the external and the appearances. I'm sure the people in the town respected and looked to the Pharasees as the "good christians". And for me, growing up in a Christian home where ministry was what my family did, I had to look and act the part. I was right in this same spot. I honored God with my lips but not my heart.
The next part begins with they worship me in vain. What exactly is worship? Worship isn't just the songs we sing in church or that once a week half an hour or hour of true reverance to God. Or at least it shouldn't be. Worship should be a constant every day thing. It doesn't always have to be as huge as we make it nowadays. In the biblical times, worship was evident in all of everyday activiites as a constant praise time. Jesus rebuked these men for having such a narrow worship. They put their own commandments above God's and their hearts lacked the worship Christ deserved in their everyday lives.
God,
I dont' want to return to my childlike acts where my relationship with you was all about what others thought of it and of external value. I know now that isn't what you desire and it isn't a true relationship. God I want to be 100% pure, 1oo% real and it to reflect in my life. If i were to be worshipping 24/7 as you desire, my life would look a whole lot different and I would achieve this purity. God, This is so important and something that I still struggle with. Help me to improve on this, guide me and teach me and give me the passion for your word and life that you deserve. I don't want to be like the Pharasees and follow their hipocritical ways. Lord, thanks you that you offer a new start even though for so long when I was younger I did this. Thank you
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