When God hates our worship

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Amos 5:16-27

TO CHEW ON: “I hate, I despise your feast days

And I do not savor your sacred assemblies…

Take away from me the noise of your songs

for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.

But let justice run down like water

And righteousness like a mighty stream.” Amos 5:21,23-24

Have you ever heard waitresses say that they dislike serving church groups or people in business say Christian companies are the worst to deal with? Does this make sense? Shouldn’t a stingy, difficult-to-work-for, or hard-to-get-fair-service-and-timely-payment-from person who calls himself a Christian be an oxymoron?

In this passage God scolds Israel for putting on an outward religious show but neglecting justice and righteousness. What are justice and righteousness?

- justice: 1) The quality of being just (fair, evenhanded, impartial). 2) The rendering of what is due or merited.

- righteous: 1) Conforming in disposition and conduct to a standard of right and justice; upright, virtuous. 2) Morally right, equitable.

In plain words, justice is how we act toward others. Righteousness is our personal moral code- what we do and are even when no one is looking.

God hates it when our real selves – what we are like privately and when we’re away from those we’re hoping to impress, don’t line up with our outward show of worship. In fact, He rejects this worship entirely. Despite our raised hands and rapturous Sunday morning faces, God’s blessing will not fill our lives if, at the same time, they are full of deceit, envy, gossip, fighting, bitterness, unforgiveness etc.

How do I measure up in the justice and righteousness departments? How do you? God can show us where and how to make changes.

PRAYER: Dear God, I want streams and justice and righteousness to run through my life. Please show me how this can happen. Amen.

MORE:

“Never look for right in the other man, but never cease to be right yourself. We are always looking for justice; the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is – Never look for justice, but never cease to live it.”

- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest