Hearts Over Ritual

Is it possible for our religious acts or rituals to distract us from God? Can our rituals lead us away from a true relationship with Jesus? Is it possible to have our religious acts and rituals in line and right and also have our hearts hardened or distant from God?

It is possible to reject God and his commandments while establishing our religious acts or rituals. We can appear to be devout followers of God by our rituals and religious acts, and our hearts can remain cold and callous and far from God.

Jesus said to the religious leaders of his day, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!” (Mark 7:9, ESV).

God desires love and obedience to his word; not simply the appearance of obedience.

Jesus indicted the religious leaders with Isaiah’s words, saying, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” (Mark 7:6-8, ESV).

It is possible to know tradition and religious ritual and not to know God and obey him. God does not want lip service from his followers. God desires obedience from loving and truly devoted hearts. God is more concerned with the state of our hearts and our love for him than he is for dead religion or ritualistic expression of feigned affection.

May we choose to love God over religious ritual and choose obedience to God over lip service to him, and may we express loving obedience from devoted hearts to God as we worship him in sincerity and in truth.

A Collect for Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, (Proper 17): “O Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow after us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 2019).

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