Good Morning Friends,
“‘Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but
you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.’ Jesus
declared, ‘Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do
not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.’”
(John 4:20-24)
For the Jews and the Samaritans, the place
they worshiped was what determined how correct their worship was. The Jews had
to worship at the temple in Jerusalem and they traveled there multiple times a
year. The Samaritans had to worship on Mt. Gerezim.
Place wasn’t all that was important to them. Both
also had very clearly prescribed ways in which they worshiped. They had
specific sacrifices to give and specific rituals to follow. The value of their
worship was determined by the way they followed the rules of worship.
Jesus told of a new kind of worship that was
coming, and is now here. It is worship in spirit and in truth. That is, it is
worship that comes from the heart. It’s not the place of worship that matters
anymore, for God does not dwell in a house made by human hands. It’s not the
rituals of worship that matter, either. It is what goes on in the heart that
matters to God. A heart that is in right relationship with Him and that is
expressing its love and devotion honestly is what God is looking for among us.
If your heart is not right, going through the
best rituals in the finest house of worship doesn’t do a thing for God or for
you. A heart that’s right and honestly loves Him is pleasing to Him even in the
most humble place and with the most out of tune music.
When you worship, what does God see in your
heart?
His, by Grace,
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment