The Heart of the Matter

Christianity is based on the grace, the mercy, and the love of an Almighty God. A God who gave His one and only Son to die for us to provide a way for us to be declared righteous and holy before our God despite the fact that we are sinners and deserve eternal damnation. He offered us the gift of salvation, if we will but admit that we have sinned and are in need of a Saviour; we repent of our sin; and we declare Him Lord over our lives. To me this sounds like a pretty loving and personal God! All through the scriptures we see instances where the Lord yearns for a deeper relationship with His people instead of them just blindly following His commands. So many times we can lose site of the Lord in what we do, even the spiritual things. The Lord has reasons behind everything He commands us to do. If we simply get in the routine of just doing spiritual religious things, we can totally miss how God intends for us to grow closer to Him. We can miss the heart of the matter, which is a deeper relationship with our Lord.

The Jews in the Old Testament had a problem with this at one point. The prophet Zechariah was sent to them to give them a message from the Lord. The people were inquiring of God whether or not He wanted them to fast and mourn as they had consistently done during the same time of year for the past seventy years. Not necessarily a bad question, but listen to the Lord's response and you get an idea that the people were missing the whole heart of the matter behind the fasting:
"Then the Word of the Lord Almighty came to me (Zechariah): Ask all the people of the land and the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?" (Zechariah 7:4-6)
Clearly, the Lord understood that the people had last sight of why He had them fasting at this time each year, and that they had turned their fasting into a religious custom. I feel that you can really see the Lord's heart afterward though, He takes the time and reminds them of what it means to be His people. He reminds them how to live, and hopefully they will again understand His heart behind fasting:
"And the Word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: This is what the Lord Almighty says: Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other" (Zechariah 7:8-10)

Unfortunately, if you read on in Zechariah, the people did not listen. However, what a great lesson for us to keep in mind as we grow and serve the Lord. The Lord ultimately wants relationship with us. He desires us to do good and follow His decrees, yes, but more importantly He wants us to seek His heart behind everything we do. Here are a few additional verses that help us understand the Lord's heart. The one from Isaiah is long, but please read:

"Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail" (Isaiah 58:5-11)

"If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he decieves himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as puer and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (James 1:26-27)