Thought of the day:
“I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind men, Because they have sinned against the Lord; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse.” Neither their silver nor their gold Shall be able to deliver them In the day of the Lord’s wrath; But the whole land shall be devoured By the fire of His jealousy, For He will make speedy riddance Of all those who dwell in the land. Zephaniah 1:17-18 NKJV
We seem to see a recurring theme here, the “religious” in Israel tried to buy their forgiveness, in a sense, by practicing sacrifices and rituals. We know that these are the things that God does not desire from anyone. He would rather have our hearts that can be molded. He would rather that we were not so rigid in our worship to Him.
People today are still very rigid in some areas of their worship. Sure, we should be in prayer, Study and fellowship constantly. What we need to be careful of is that these things don’t become so rigid that they are a matter of obligation. They should be done because we want to not have to.
When we approach our time with The Lord with a heart that is open to learn, we can see His Love for us. It gives us opportunity to learn more about Him. He will Lead us on paths we didn’t expect to follow. It’s through being obedient, with a moldable heart, that we experience His Love for us that is different than what we think we know.
We need to learn to not be so rigid in our worship. We cannot say that just because we have learned one way of worship or study that it’s the only way. We see God Work with different experiences. What we have to be careful of, when we practice different worship styles, that they are not something that leads us away from Our Lord or that they are squirrelly. We don’t want to get into something that goes against Who He is and remember that worship is about Him and not us. It’s not about what we can gain physically but about how we grow closer to Him.
Are you being so rigid in your practices of worship and study that you’re not willing to learn different ways that Our Lord Works?