"What About the Heart?"

  The book of Malachi is a eye-opening study. Here is the last prophet to come to God's people to try to turn hearts. After Malachi there will be no prophet or teaching from the Lord for some 440 years. This prophet points out that all the sacrifices and service that the people, especially the priests, were offering to God were worthless. And what made them worthless? There was no heart!! It was all rehearsed and done with lives that are sinful. God rejected them and said He would curse their blessings.

  We learn over and over from Scripture that God wants hearts, not religion! There are too many places to quote and reference to show this. But a few will suffice. In Psalm 51 we find David dealing with the sin between him and Bathsheba. David knows what God wants, truth in the inner man, a pure heart and a steadfast spirit. He ends the Psalm acknowledging God does not "delight in sacrifices" or "take pleasure in burnt offerings" but that "the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart."

  We find Isaiah 1 where God says the offerings and prayers were sickening to Him. Why? Because they had become meaningless. God was looking to the sacrifices offered to be an expression of the worshipers repentant heart!

  In all this we find that when one offers to God their worship, their desires, their attitudes were all to represent the heart of the offerer. If the heart was not deeply involved they were worse than offering nothing!

  Just from these illustrations we learn what our worship is to be. To sit and observe, to have an attitude running within that heart that is cold or indifferent will bring us condemnation from the Lord. Jesus is our sacrifice. He gave His life for mine. In all this there is a rescuing, saving, redeeming us from the destruction of sin. What should that produce within us? A heart that gives thanks. For one to be touched by the redeeming work of Jesus on their behalf should produce within the forgiven a heart to offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. It will be a heart of joy and love for the Lord. Without that, we make our lives a bunch of clanging noise, nothing and it all has no profit (I Cor. 13:1-3). What is going on in your heart when you worship with the saints?