Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Is it Faith or Religion?

Isaiah 29:13 - "The Lord says: These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men." (NIV)

Confession time: I've found bits of this verse springing forth in my mind during praise and worship at church because I've been lacking focus. Here's an example of my thought process: "Oh, I like this song! I like the original version better. Hmm, the drums are awfully loud. How many times are we going to repeat the chorus? " Nothing in there about how wonderful God is or how beautiful, holy, forgiving and merciful He is. What's worse, I'll catch myself wandering and try to focus, only to be distracted by my intent to focus. That's when I give up and pray for mercy.

Though my example does not indicate the authenticity of my relationship with the Lord, I do believe this verse addresses a lack of authentic faith - where one claims to be a Christian because s/he shows up and sings the songs and follows the rules, but does not have a meaningful, personal relationship with the Lord.

The Lord desires more than lip service and rule-following from us. He desires a true, authentic relationship with us. If He didn't want that relationship, then He wouldn't have sent His Son to die for our sins. Though only the Lord knows a person's heart, we can at least have insight into our own hearts. Am I following the Lord because my parents did or because I "grew up" in the faith? Or do I follow the Lord because I desire to follow His ways and long for a relationship with Him? When I sing the praise and worship songs in church, am I wanting to bring praise or am I just going with the flow of the service (apparently I'm struggling with this one lately, though I am aware of it now)?

Do I want to follow rules for the sake of following traditon or do I follow the Lord and His ways in service to Him? My prayer is that my walk with the Lord is an authentic faith, not a religion built on man's traditions and lovely, shallow words.

What are your thoughts?

2 comments:

Just Me said...

My friend, I had to laugh at your comment about giving up and praying for mercy. I cannot tell you how many times I've been praying and found myself all twisted up in trying to say what I mean. I eventually give up, assume God knows what I mean and revert to "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." I figure He made me, He knows I'm an idiot, He knows my heart and therefore adjusts accordingly. :D!

smithsk said...

You picked an excellent verse that is more powerful than an atom bomb.

It gives deeper meaning to the cliche - Talk is cheap.

God has to work the miracle of giving us a new and clean heart to commune with Him.