Here I am. I'm sitting in church pew singing songs that lift high the name of my God, the Lord of Heaven's Armies. I sing and I even try to sing nicely. But as the music ends and I sit listening to the pastor, I realize I never even acknowledged God that entire time. It was half-hearted and empty.
I sometimes get so used to the songs and the repetition of things that I don't give myself fully to the Lord. I don't give Him the praise and worship He deserves.
And then as the church service ends, I go home and my prayers are hardly even that and I continue about my business.
Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever found yourself becoming so used to the way you spend your days that your worship and prayer life do not give God the honor He deserves?
Malachi makes it pretty clear that God despises this kind of sacrificial worship.
The Lord of Heaven's Armies says to the priests: "A son honors his father, and a servant respects his master. If I am your father and master, where are the honor and respect I deserve? You have shown contempt for my name!" (Malachi 1:6)The people wonder at how they've shown contempt and God was more than happy to answer their question.
"You have shown contempt by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar.In this passage God has an issue with the priests. It isn't an external issue, that they offered a blind animal, the issue was internal, a matter of the heart. The priests were not giving God their best.
"Then you ask, 'How have we defiled the sacrifices?'
"You have defiled them by saying the altar of the Lord deserves no respect. When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn't that wrong? And isn't it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is!" says the Lord of Heaven's Armies, (Malachi 1:7-8).
This is a wake up call for you and for me. How often do we not give God our best? They dishonored God in spite of His Fatherly care and masterly power. God was not happy about the way they showed contempt for His name. His name is His reputation or character, and the Judeans were showing how little they thought of God by giving Him worthless offerings.
"How I wish one of you would shut the Temple doors so that these worthless sacrifices could not be offered! I am not pleased with you," says the Lord of Heaven's Armies, "and I will not accept your offerings. But my name is honored by people of other nations from morning till night. All around the world they offer sweet incense and pure offerings in honor of my name. For my name is great among the nations," says the Lord of Heaven's Armies, (Malachi 1:10-11).God is worthy of our praise. He is deserving of sacrificial worship. I will choose no longer give Him blind animals. I will choose to, instead, offer sweet incense, pure offerings and true honor from morning till night. I will choose to have a heart like David as he determined to never give unto God that which cost him nothing.
Honor the Lord for the glory of His name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness. The voice of the Lord echoes above the sea. The God of glory thunders. The Lord thunders over the mighty sea, (Psalm 29:2-3).
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