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The Holy God, The King of Ages; Who is to be feared, And whom all glory is due. This is the God we come to in worship. He deserves all glory, praise, and adoration because his love endures forever! He delights in our praises and even meets with us and inhabits our praises! However, along with His beauty and love, He is a Holy God and we must stand in reverence for Him. He loves worship that ascends from our hearts to His heart, but one thing a Holy God will not tolerate is lip service. He does not want worship with our lips if our hearts are not also engaging in his praise. Let's check out what His Living words say... *Amos 5:21-24 Here the Lord says, "I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies...You bring your offerings, but I will have no regard for them. Away from me with your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps." Wow, God was absolutely revolted by Israel's worship. Because their hearts were far away, their worship was totally wrong.
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*Matthew 15:8 Here, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and teachers about how they're living and he quotes Isaiah's prophecy and says, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain, their teachings are but rules taught by men". Jesus essentially says, "Who are you anyway? I can see that your heart is far from me, but you honor me with your words. I don't want lip service". In addition, he already knows our hearts (Hebrews 4:13), so how can we not revere him? *Isaiah 1:13-16 In this part of the book Isaiah, The Lord again says, "I cannot bear your evil assemblies...your appointed feasts my soul hates". Then he goes farther and says, "When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourself clean". The King of Ages turns away when hands are lifted to His name, if the heart behind the hands in unclean. So before we come with our lives in worship to God, we must get our heart in the right place. Thankfully we can come before His throne of grace and experience the cleansing that turns our sins from scarlet, to white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). Then, as one lead worshipper puts it, we can worship God with our hands held high and our hearts bowed down. Amen!
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