You better get your heart right, girl!

My brother-in-law has this quaint way of reminding his son to get his behavior in check. (He also says it with a Louisiana accent.) If my nephew, starts throwing a fit or talking back to his momma, his Daddy tells him, “You better get your mind right, boy.”  I couldn’t help think about this as I read part of Matthew this morning.

“'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.'
Jesus called the crowd to him and said, 'Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.'" Matthew 15:8-11

Jesus is talking about the Pharisees, and right before this calls them hypocrites because they are upset about tradition being broken over honoring God. How easy is it for us to read about the Pharisees and say, “Wow, I am so glad I am not like them?” But if we stop and examine our words and actions, do they match our hearts?

Do we sometimes, or often, attend church because it’s Sunday and it’s “what we’re supposed to do.” Do we take communion, sing the hymns, kneel in prayer, simply because that is the order of service and we know it by memory? Do we read our bible in the mornings, or bow our heads to pray before a meal or bedtime, as a ritual? God doesn’t want our methods, or our routines! God wants our hearts!

He wants my heart! He wants me to come to him with a heart ready to worship. A heart ready to be changed by prayer. A heart humbled by what communion represents! When I speak, and it is coming from my heart, does it match with my religious acts? Does my heart match with the motions I am going through? If it doesn’t, God is telling me, “You better get your heart right, boy.” (or girl in this case)

Dear Father God, I come before you and confess that my heart is not always in a place of worship when I come to you. So many times I let the outside world distract me, when Lord, I truly desire to honor You. I pray for your forgiveness, God, and I ask that you would continually remind me to make sure my heart is in the right place before I begin worshipping, praying, singing your praises, so that I am not a hypocrite like the Pharisees. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.