When Your Heart is Not Right

If our hearts are not right, should we avoid worshiping God publicly?

In Malachi’s day, the priests and the people were going through the motions of worship, yet all the while despising His Name (Malachi 1:6), thinking, “What a weariness this is!” (Malachi 1:13). So God says:

Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors [of the temple], that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 1:10-11)

God is great. And He is working together all the events of history to culminate in the grand, eternal, joyful worship of His Name by all peoples.

Worship today, in this age, is to foreshadow that final, glorious worship. But our perfunctory, going-through-the-motions worship does not do that. Instead, such obligatory worship degrades Him. Rather than the deserved honoring of the One who is holy, mighty, loving, and just, such worship makes Him look like some rich person who is not too bright, whom we need to fool and puff up so he’ll grant us what we really want. For we don’t want Him. Why should we? We just want what He will give us.

So God proclaims through Malachi that He would rather we not worship at all. He would rather board up the temple and cease all sacrifices. Today He would rather close the churches, disperse the choirs, and cancel Sunday School. We must halt any so-called worship that in effect distorts and dishonors His Name.

That leads us back to the opening question. We might think that we should apply this passage to ourselves individually, in saying, “I’m angry with God. I’m annoyed with Him. If I can’t get my heart right in time, I should just stay away. That’s what He would want. I shouldn’t be a hypocrite.”

But that is not what the passage implies. Indeed, the book of Malachi was written to change the hearts of those engaged in perfunctory worship. He deserves true, joyful worship – moving from perfunctory worship to no worship at all doesn’t solve the problem.

Rather, after recognizing that our hearts are in the wrong place, we must ask Him to change us: to change us through His Spirit working directly on us, through His Word showing us who He is, and through the songs, Scriptures, prayers, and preaching of our worship. We must beseech Him to enable us to see His greatness, to encounter His love, to be overwhelmed by His grace and justice. We must beg of Him to lead our hearts to respond rightfully to His revelation of Himself.

And time and again God graciously grants such requests.

So having a hard heart is not a reason to avoid worship. Rather it is a reason to seek His face, a reason to beg Him to change your heart. May He use our worship services to that end among us.

 

To Sin is to Despise God

If God were to confront you after you sin, what would He say?

Scripture tells us what God told David after his sins of adultery and murder:

I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? (2 Samuel 12:7-9)

Similarly, God could rightly say to those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus:

I delivered you out of the hand of Satan. I sent My Son to die for you. I anointed you with My Holy Spirit. I brought you into my family and gave you brothers and sisters in Christ to love you, care for you, and pray for you. I made you part of a kingdom of priests. I gave you life and breath and health and abilities and jobs and houses and food and clothing. I gave you earthly families and joys. And if this were too little, I would give to you even more – ask and you will receive! Why then have you despised My word, to do what is evil in My sight?

You see, God does not set arbitrary rules and then slap us when we violate them. He is not a cosmic killjoy looking down to see who He gets to punish today. Nor is He an uninvolved, distant enforcer who mechanically and dispassionately deals out retribution for misdeeds.

No. God is the gracious Giver who, despite our disobedience and rebellion, continues to provide all humanity with the good gifts abounding around us.  And if we claim to be in Christ, we say that He has saved us by completely unmerited grace, calling us out of darkness into His marvelous light. He makes us into a holy nation, a people for His own possession to proclaim His excellencies (1 Peter 2:9). He has adopted us into His family and made us joint heirs with Christ, promising to conform us to His likeness (Romans 8:14-17, 29). He works all things together for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). He is an eternally loving Father to us, who knows how to give good gifts (Matthew 7:9-11) – and who knows how to discipline us for our good (Hebrews 12:7-11). Far from being arbitrary, the commands He gives us tell us how we can live in this fallen world for His glory and our joy (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).

So when we disobey, we, the creatures, are claiming to know better than He, our Creator. We are claiming that we discern our good better than He, the all-knowing One. We are claiming that we can run our lives better than He, our Designer. We are claiming that we have a better moral sense than He, the Source of all good.

And so to sin is to despise Him and His Word.

Yes, sin is a breaking of God’s rules. But it is much more.

  • It is complete foolishness, because it never leads to our greatest good.
  • It is grossly presumptuous, because it assumes we know more than God.
  • And it is a rejection of the Person of our heavenly Father, effectively spitting in His face, telling Him to get out of our lives and let us run them on our own.

Don’t despise God or His Word. Submit to Him. And find with David that His love is better than life (Psalm 63:3).