“Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, ‘Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: “When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me—for Me? When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves? Should you not have obeyed the words which the LORD proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous, and the South and the Lowland were inhabited?”’” (Zechariah 7:4-7)
What they were doing was worthless. It wasn’t worship, for it was not directed to God. They were trying to earn points with Him. That isn’t love.
The attitude in marriage would be, “I’ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine.” We expect a quid pro quo. That’s a contractual partnership, not a covenant relationship!
With the Lord, it may be expressed this way, “Well God, I went to church today! How many points do I get for that?”
God’s answer is, “Zero!” Worship isn’t about us; it’s about God! Yet, so much of our worship is about our preferences, our style of music, and how many spiritual goose bumps we get.
A man was leaving the church, complaining about the music. “I didn’t like the hymns you chose today.” The pastor simply said, “That’s okay; we weren’t singing them for you.”
The late William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, said, “To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, and to devote the will to the purpose of God.” Let us seek to offer that kind of worship!
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