Is Your Heart Right with God?
What does your attitude show?
God is certainly concerned with the things we do.
However, He is most concerned with our heart - the mind.
For I delight in faithfulness, not simply in sacrifice; I delight in acknowledging God, not simply in whole burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6)
Some of the Jews thought that so long as they showed up to the temple and offered the sacrifices God demanded, they could go about their lives - living as they pleased.
But God was not pleased at all with this kind of “religion.”
With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8)
They ignored that God didn’t just want their actions - He wanted their hearts.
God desires that we love Him with our entire being. Jesus reminded one of the religious leaders of this very thing.
Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:35-40)
Jesus is not downplaying the importance of obedience. He reminds us that our obedience is supposed to flow out a “right heart” - a heart that loves God above all else.
If you love Me, keep My commandments. (John 14:15)
Do you obey God because you love Him? Or do you only view Him as the God you need to offer something to every so often to keep Him happy?
Is your heart right with God?