Friday; March 28

What makes worship pleasing to God?  I realize that most people will come up some kind of answer – and many of them will focus on some functional aspect of worship.  In other words, we need to do this or that in our assembly to do religion correctly.  Now, while I do believe there are “Bible ways” to do “Bible things”, I also believe that acceptable worship starts well before we get in our cars and drive to the church building.  Even if we get our actions correct, if our attitudes are off, we aren’t going to be pleasing to God.  The Old Testament is filled with warnings about “heartless” religion including Isaiah’s warning, “Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote …” (Isaiah 29:13).  So, how do we make our worship pleasing to God?  I think a lot of it boils down to our relationships.  If we want our worship to be all it can be, our “people” relationships need to be the best they can be.  Jesus observed, “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.” (Matthew 5:23-24).

As we prepare to meet together in worship with God and others this weekend, let’s make sure to our relationships with others are in place.  When we do that, we’ll have a better chance at getting the most our of our worship.

Think About It!

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