Isaiah 1:11
“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith
the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed
beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of
he goats.”
God asked an important question to His people. He asked, “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?” God saw the sacrifices they made, how often they frequented the temple, He heard the prayers they prayed, but He still didn’t understand their purpose as to why they continued to do these things.
The LORD didn’t understand their purpose because their actions didn’t match their lifestyle. They sacrificed and prayed, but they lived a wicked lifestyle during the week.
What God wanted from these people is found in verses 16-17. He says, “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” What God desired was a clean heart. He desired a people who practiced during the week what they did on the weekend. He wanted a people who sought to do right during the week as much as they did when they went to the temple. God wasn’t interested in a penance to fulfill their religious duties to appease their conscience, but He was interested in them doing right with a pure heart.
The same question that God asked His people is still being asked today. To what purpose are the actions you do for the LORD on the weekend if you are going to live for the world during the week? Why are you faithful to every church service if you are going to live for the world? Why do you fulfill your duties in your church if your heart is filled with sin?
Your purpose matters to God. It matters that your heart matches the spiritual actions performed on weekends. God is not interested in the spiritual rhetoric to prove to others that you are spiritual, but He is interested in a sincere heart that wants to please Him with all that you do. My friend, stop making your spiritual actions a penance to appease your conscience. It is not about how you feel about yourself that matters to God, but it is how He perceives what you do that matters.
Joshua 24:14 shows what God is interested in from the Christian when He says, “Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth…” God is more interested in your heart than He is the actions that are performed to prove your spirituality to others. God is not interested in your Christianity if all you do is serve Him to show others how spiritual you are. God wants your heart to match your actions. He wants your motives to be pure. He wants a heart that is seeking His approval and not the approval of the world or spiritual leaders.
You will find that when your heart has a desire to please the LORD that your actions will follow. In other words, you won’t have to live a double life if you serve the LORD in “sincerity and in truth.” You will find that right actions always follow the heart if the heart is right with the LORD. Let me encourage you to stop serving the LORD to prove your spirituality to others around you. Let your service to the LORD be a reflection of your heart. When your heart is sincere, your actions will be pure which results in a life which pleases the LORD.