WEEK FIVE - DAY FOUR - GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS

There's been many stages in my life when I've felt like I'm just going through the motions with God.  Just checking off the "to do" list of church attendance, Bible study, prayer time...everything by rote, without much emotion or interaction of my heart.  I don't ever want to be there on any kind of long-term basis again, and yet there are still days that feel forced, when I wonder if God is listening, or if I am, or if either of us is connecting with the other.  While I think it's normal to experience some "dry" days occasionally, if these days come too often, or too close together, it's time for some examination of our lives, our hearts and what it is that is drawing us away from the heart of God.  Because God IS listening, God is ready to connect and, as the old saying goes, "Feel far from God?  Guess who moved?"  It's never our Heavenly Father who has drawn back...we can always trace the lost connection right back to our wayward heart.

Matthew West released the song "The Motions" in 2009 and the lyrics really speak to what we're talking about today:

"I don't wanna go through the motions, I don't wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me.
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking, what if I had given everything instead of going through the motions?
No regrets, not this time, I'm gonna let my heart defeat my mind.
Let Your love make me whole. I think I'm finally feeling something."

God wants us to have His passion, His all consuming passion, inside of us.  He asks us to give Him our whole hearts, and abandon the emptiness of going through the motions.

The people of Judah had been in a very long dry spell.  Oh they were still offering the sacrifices, false prophets were still delivering soothing messages from the temples, but their hearts were far away, turned away from God, and turned toward their neighbors' pagan influences. In Jeremiah 7:9-10 God makes it clear that they are not fooling Him, "Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, 'We are delivered!' ---that you may do all these abominations?" and in Jeremiah 23:10b-11 we read, "...'the pastures of the wilderness have dried up.  Their course also is evil and their might is not right. For both prophet and priest are polluted; Even in My house I have found their wickedness,' declares the Lord."  They were both physically and spiritually dry and yet they had deceived themselves into thinking that God would be pleased with their superficial worship...He never is.  

When we are coming to God with hearts that are in every practical aspect turned away from Him, and yet stand in worship with hands held high and sing words of praises, He is no more pleased with us than He was with the people of Judah.  He wants our hearts...He wants our lives.  We read in Romans 2:29, "And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by God's Spirit.  And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people."  Here's your sign - who are you seeking praise from?  When our hearts have been changed by the Spirit of God, we seek the praise of God alone.  And what does it look like to worship God in a manner that pleases Him?  

In Psalm 51:17 we are told that "The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart."  We cannot worship God in a pleasing manner if we come to Him with a haughty spirit, without a desperation for His healing of our brokenness, without acknowledging Him as our only source of cleansing and restoration.  

Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well, that we must worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).  In Matthew Henry's commentary on this verse, he states, "The spirit or the soul of man, as influenced by the Holy Spirit, must worship God, and have communion with him. Spiritual affections, as shown in fervent prayers, supplications, and thanksgivings, form the worship of an upright heart, in which God delights and is glorified."  My emphasis added to fervent prayers, supplications and thanksgiving because we can fall into rote patterns of prayer that are far from fervent.  We must continually ask for hearts that are soft and ready to pour out our every emotion in our conversations with God.  

This brings to mind how the people of Judah were viewing God's provision for them...they had this idea that their continued "worship" of Him, in whatever manner they were willing to bring it, ensured that God would continue to protect them, bless them and keep their cushy lives, well, cushy!  In Jeremiah 5:12-13 they say, "He won't bother us!  No disasters will come upon us.  There will be no war or famine."  We have to be very careful that our worship of God isn't reduced to worshipping Him for making our lives good and comfortable.  Our proclamation that "God is good" needs to be said when we've experienced wonderful times and equally proclaimed when we've gone through the valley.  Worship of God is due Him because He is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God, Creator of the universes and, yet, being all that, He knows us and loves us...individually, personally.  We worship Him for no other reason.  We praise Him for all that He has done for us through the sacrifice of Jesus and the forgiveness that His blood brings over our lives.

We thank Him for earthly blessings that He has brought to us, but we don't worship Him for that.  We worship Him for who He is and praise Him for what He has done for us.  If all our earthly blessings go away, we still will have hearts of worship.  For He will still be God.  Worthy of all honor, praise and glory!