DAILY HOPE DEVOTIONALS: DECEMBER 16 BELIEVERS AND VAIN WORSHIP (2) SCRITPURE: ISAIAH 29: 13 – 14; MARK 7: 6 – 7
Yesterday devotional made it clear what vain worship is in its simplified way. Vain worship is shrouded with pretext, faking mannerism and deceptive appearances. It is all about making people believe we worship from our hearts while our hearts and minds are far away from God. Vain worship is worshipping with hypocrisy as seen in Mark 7: 6 – 7 above which reads in part: “And He said to them, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: this people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship me…” Many Christians while worshipping God still have disregard to His commandments. Such action is tantamount to vain worship.
The month of December ought to be the period of looking back into the past months and check where we never measured up in our Christian obligations including mode of worshipping God. If our checks found us following human traditions rather than following God’s patterns, it means our worships have being in vain. We ought to know that worship becomes vain when it is done in the flesh and not in the spiritually motivated mood. Worshipping becomes vain when it does not originate from a regenerated heart fills with the Spirit of God. In whatever nature we choose to worship God, we are to ensure that the worship is from our heart connected to God and Jesus Christ.
In the Old Testament days, people focused on laws, offerings, sacrifices, ceremonies or rites dominated by human doctrines. This possibly affected their true worship as their minds were focused on the physical things used as materials for worship. Unfortunately, today, people are being defrauded and swindled out of their financial resources and material possessions similar to the Old Testament styles (read Roman 10: 4). This is another form of vain worship. The beloved, it is vain to seek to worship from an unregenerated spirit or heart. It is a vain worship to offer God your money or any physical or material offering without you first offering God from the deep of your heart. Please follow us into tomorrow as we discuss “True Worship” in Spirit and Truth.”
PRAYER:
Pray and ask the Holy Spirit of God to direct your heart and mind to seeking genuine ways to worship God in the truest worship mode undiluted with human traditions in the name of Jesus Christ.
bishopubaudenyi@hopealivechurch