Putting Obedience First

When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?
Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
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 yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong,
Learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.
(Isaiah 1:12-17 NIV)

At first glance, this is kind of a tough passage of Scripture to read. I try to imagine what it would feel like to hear these words directed at me as someone who claims to be a follower of the Lord. I cannot think of anything more devastating than to know that God is “hiding His eyes” from me when I pray and worship Him. I’m sure that most of us have gone through times where we “feel” like our prayers aren’t reaching heaven, but in this case, God is letting His people know that He is rejecting their prayers & acts of worship.

Why?

The activities of worship (feasts, songs, prayer, etc) are meaningless without a lifestyle of obedience. It’s true that the activities themselves in ancient Israel were somewhat different than the ways work out our faith today, but the goal is the same … we seek to be people who draw near to God and have an intimate relationship with Him. This cannot be accomplished in a weekly church service or by checking off a list of religious actions. Worship & prayer need to be part of a lifestyle that follows God’s commands everyday. Some days are easier than others to live this way, and it’s on the difficult days that obedience requires the most from me. My greatest goal is that my life would be defined by heartfelt, authentic worship of the Lord. However, my “actions” of worship are completely hypocritical if they aren’t accompanied by repentance, a clean heart, obedience to God’s commands, and a faith that gets worked out in service and love (vs.15-17). If my priorities are right and I’m walking in obedience to God’s word each day, then my expressions of prayer & worship are natural outflows of a heart that is worshiping God through my actions, decisions, and conversations 24/7. I want to commit myself to obey first, and then watch what happens in my prayer & worship before the Lord.