“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;” (Matthew 15:8, ESV).
It is easy to fool people with our lips by giving the false impression we are close to the Lord, when we are not. To do so, is to be a hypocrite. We are not honoring the Lord with our lips, when our heart is far from Him. It is the spiritual state of our heart in relation to God that determines whether we are close to him or not. We can even be self deceived into believing we are close to the Lord, when the fact is our hearts are far from Him. “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45, ESV). You cannot ‘fake it until you make it’ to be close to God. It is not a matter of saying all the right words until you get close to the Lord Jesus. Nor is it a matter of generating enough feeling until we get close to God. The truth is if there is unconfessed sin in our life, that will erect a wall between us and our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Repentance then is necessary to be in right relationship with Him again. It is not drawing near to God with our lips that determines closeness to Him, but likeness to Him is determined by the heart we have for the Lord. C. H. Spurgeon says it well: “Nearness to God brings likeness to God. The more you see God, the more of God will be seen in you.” So let it be the lips of our heart that draws near to God rather than the lips of our mouth, only then will our words stand in truth as opposed to falling to the ground in hypocrisy. If we want our lips to honor the Lord, then we need to draw near to God with our heart.
Lord, it is easy to spout off a word salad to You in prayer, but where is our heart in prayer? Too often our heart just isn’t in praying. Praying is hard work, but most necessary in our relationship with You. Lord Jesus, implant in us a real desire and passion for prayer. Grant unto us a heart like David who was known to be a man after your heart. In Christ’s name I pray, Amen.
