It’s Not the Song You Sing

Once we have decided to walk with the Lord for a while, we get pretty good at going through the motions of Christianity. We go to church, we pray before our meals, and present ourselves like we think we are supposed to. When we are at church, we sing the beautiful worship songs along with the congregation. We sing that we worship the Lord and we sing that we love Him. We may even give our offering to the church and volunteer with a smile on our face.

The question of our lives is not how nicely we act at church, but how well our character holds up for the other 6 days of the week. How do we speak to our family members? Do we treat them with respect with our words? Are we committed to truth or do we flippantly lie to others whenever it benefits us? Do we humbly serve others or do we constantly want our way and want to have our needs met? Do we honor our spouse when we are not with them or are we a person they would be shocked to see? Is our goal for each day to pursue God’s will for our life or to live as we please?

We can give ourselves a pretty big pat on our back for going through our Christian motions, but God shows us that He is much more concerned with our daily lives than our religious rituals.

Amos 5:21-24

“I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.

I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.

Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.”

God loves our praises to Him and He loves the sacrifices we make to Him and for Him. However, if our outward religious motions don’t match the inward condition of our heart, we are really just performing for ourselves and others, not desiring to lift up the name of the Lord. To lift up the name of the Lord doesn’t just mean to sing empty words on Sunday. It means to make our lives a song of praise that worships Him through our unknown actions and our quietest words.

We want our lives to be an endless river of righteous living. Our right way of living shouldn’t be reserved for church or for when our spouse is around or even our mother. Our right way of living should be ever flowing into every single part of our lives. My life is not a show with different acts for different audiences. My life is truly lived for God - every day and in every way.

Father God, my worship to You is not just a superficial song that I sing on Sunday mornings. My worship to You is living my life in a way that is pleasing to You and in line with Your will for my life. Your desire for my life is for me to live in the example that Jesus set for me. If I am one person in church and another person around my family and another person at work, my songs to You are just a show. Please help me live my life in a way that worships You. Let the times that I’m alone and the times that I’m not at church still bring forth a song of praise to You.

#integrity #hypocrisy