What I read today

Esther 5; Ecclesiastes 2; Zechariah 7; Acts 28; Revelation 12

In Zechariah 7 the captive Israelites come to the prophet Zechariah and ask him if the should continue to fast as they had done in the past.

Zechariah gives them an answer they genuinely don’t expect.

Worship wasn’t supposed to be about an act we did for God.  It wasn’t supposed to be about the repetitive motion of going to a worship service and reciting words of a ritual.  It also wasn’t supposed to be about some outwardly joyous worship and partying that many of our worship services have turned into.

True worship was a time self-reflection and introspection.  A time when we looked inward at ourselves given what the commandments truly meant.  It was also a time for us to look towards God in faith and ask for his grace and mercy.

Worship was supposed to be a process whereby we changed our hearts and attitudes.  The correct representation of what God wanted from our worship was found in vs. 9-10;

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.”

In other words, worship was intended to focus you and me on to how God wanted us to live our lives.  God intended for each of us to lives humbly and gratefully in service to one another.

That’s what true worship is.