Scripture

So the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.”

Observation

Jerusalem will be punished by the Lord for the hypocrisy of the people. They celebrate the feasts, but the Lord will become their enemy.

Suddenly, the enemies will themselves be crushed. The Lord who has acted against Jerusalem will now act to save it. The nations fighting against Jerusalem will become like a dream.

The Lord will astound the hypocrites who honour him with their lips but their hearts are from him.

Soon the forests of Lebanon will become a fertile field. The humble will rejoice with the Lord, but the arrogant, and the false witnesses will be taken away.

Application

Many people pay lip service to the Lord. They go to church and claim to be born again, but they are just going through the motions. Such people were once described as Sunday morning christians. They are present in worship, but their lives remain unchanged the rest of the week.

The Lord wants us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind. Every part of our being has to be surrendered to Him. Christ must be the centre of every part of our lives.

This is a process of dying to ourselves. For most of us this will be a lifelong quest, in which the Lord puts his finger on the various things we hold back from him.

The trouble is that we get to a comfortable level of sin. We can tolerate certain sins in our lives, even though we know that they are displeasing to the Lord. We must we must let go of everything.

Prayer

Father, please show me areas of my life that you want me to change and give me the grace to surrender them to you. Amen.