DON'T FAKE IT

 

DON’T FAKE IT

Mark 7:6-8 Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was prophesying about you when he said, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. Their worship is a farce, for they replace God’s commands with their own man-made teachings.’ For you ignore God’s specific laws and substitute your own traditions.” NLT

The bottom line is, we can’t be right with God and make up our own rules. Sadly, so many of us do just that. Instead of just listening to what God says in His Word and striving to live it, we adjust or change it to suit our tastes. God said what He meant and means what He said. The only way we can ever have a right relationship with God is for us to do things His way.

Some will not mess with the Word, but they don’t put into practice what they preach and teach. They put on a good front before others as to how spiritual they are, but their lives betray what they say. They may wow people with how well they know the Scriptures and be very persuasive in how they present it, but if they are not as real out of the limelight as they are in it, they are hypocrites in God’s eyes.

When our living does not support our teachings, our worship is a farce. God is not impressed or swayed in any way by performance. Worship that is acceptable to God is godliness lived out every day of our lives. It is a natural response to God from a grateful heart. It is a yearning to be near to God and to hear from Him as He speaks. Worship is humbly approaching God with a desire to be holy before Him. It is a soul in need of grace that knows that God alone is its source.

Don’t fake it. You are not fooling God. He knows your heart and holds you accountable for what is in it, the righteousness of Christ or a heart full of sin. Only the pure in heart will see God.