Danger...Danger

Is. 58:2 "Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching God."

All good stuff. Look at what God's people did: They sought God and consulted Him every day. They had a heart that found joy in knowing what He was up to. They performed righteous acts. They didn't run away from God's law but ran toward it. They wanted to know what He had to say and they enjoyed coming to Him and being in His presence.

Wow. If this were true of all of us, we would be on the right track, right? I mean, how could you go wrong when you did all this stuff? As a rule, this is true. If you run after God and His heart, you want to know His ways, you do what is right and obey Him and love being with Him, it would seem that your spiritual life was right where it should be.

I guess, however, this chapter deals with the danger of doing all the right things but still being off base. Apparently, even with all of these supposedly positive things, there is still the danger of pride. There is still the danger of selfishness. There is still the danger of thinking that you are pretty special therefore God better respond to you in the way that you expect. You see it in the next verse when they go to God...see they are approaching God, a good thing, but they come to Him with an attitude. "Why have we fasted...and you have not seen?" In other words, we are doing all the right stuff and we expect to get something from it. Danger...Danger.

I wonder, am I willing to do all the "right stuff" and not see any results? Is my relationship with God so committed that I don't expect anything in return? After all, God is not obligated to do anything for me. He is God. Sure, He is true to His promises, but He will only be true to His promises when my heart is pure. If I am going through the motions just to get stuff, forget it. I would love to say that I seek Him every day, that I had joy in knowing His ways, that I obeyed Him and ran toward His word and loved being in His presence. With the right heart, this is what God wants...but with a selfish heart, I am only fooling myself.

This is a good time to examine...why do I do what I do? Why do I read and journal and pray and go to church and serve? Is it "me centered" or God centered?