Worshipping in Truth and in Spirit: Not Using God
I was reading the Word of God, as I do daily, and I had a very particular thought during my meditation. This is where I was reading, Philippians 4:4-6 ESV, “4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
I thought to myself, why are verses 4 and 6 so famous? Most Christians could probably quote or paraphrase them very well. And why haven’t I heard of verse 5? Why haven’t I been taught that ‘reasonableness’ is a thing God counts and counts so seriously as to remind us that the Lord is coming, at the point of being reasonable? I saw that the famous verses 4 and 6 are about the benefits of the self. They are self-serving. And verse 5 is not self-serving; it holds a person accountable and demands something of all, and in this case, it demands reasonableness.
I couldn’t help but realise these famous verses were about the benefits we get from God, and that’s why they may be famous. Whereas the ones in which it is God who wants something from us, perhaps those have a habit of not being famous. And so this made me wonder, how many of us believe just to get the benefits and blessings of the Lord? Furthermore, is this why some prayers go unanswered? Lo, and behold, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” – James 4:3 NIV. It is written.
In Truth and in Spirit
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” – John 4:23 NIV.
I can’t imagine how annoying it may be for the Father to have so many people claim to belong to Him, and yet He sees that their hearts are far away from Him. He knows they don’t want Him, they only want what He can give them.
Oh my dear Heavenly Father, I’m so sorry that they just want to use You, and worse yet, act like You won’t know. And perhaps what’s truly sad is that they don’t know this about themselves. They don’t know that they are trying to use the Lord, and then get angry at Him for not answering their prayers. Because it’s all about them, isn’t it?
Brethren, how can we be sure that we are not among these Christians? Who, evidently, the Lord says this about them: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
Matthew 7:21-23 NIV.
Do you expect God to do for you more than you expect to do for Him? What are you currently doing and changing for God? Daily? The answers to these questions are a good tell sign of where your heart and mind are in Christ. If one does not have the Holy Spirit, one cannot be a child of God, “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” – Romans 8:14 NIV.
The Holy Spirit will certainly not leave us as we are. He loves us. He will want to remove anything that is not of God, so that nothing blocks us from His leadership and fulfilling His Word in our lives and on earth. Being close to the Holy Spirit equates to being close to the Word of God (the Bible). Persistently hear the Word of God by reading it, and the Holy Spirit will lead you always in the way that you should go.
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