For God or for us?

"Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me—for Me?  When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves? Should you not have obeyed the words which the LORD proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous, and the South and the Lowland were inhabited?' " – Zechariah 7v5-7

The people Zechariah had no problem being religious. For seventy years they had fasted in the fifth and the seventh month as part of their religious routine. Everyone would have thought that they were okay with God because of their long, proud religious traditions.

But God knew their hearts. ‘Why do you do this? Do you REALLY fast for Me – for Me? Aren’t you really doing this for yourself? Would it not have been better to obey?’

As these folks demonstrated it is easy to get the worship and the practices right. Who doesn’t feel good after a particularly great service? In a lot of situations we seem to judge the ‘success’ of our church meetings by how they make us feel. If we are not careful we may get the impression that Christianity is about us and what it can do for us.

Is that really what worshipping God is all about? It is all about how it makes us feel? Do we worship God for Him? Do we really? Or do we do it as much for us and for Him?

We need to be careful about who is the object of our worship and service. Sure, it is great to be blessed and encouraged by our service. But if that becomes our goal then we are in real trouble because when things go badly or we don’t ‘feel good’ we blame Him.

Why do we do what we do? Really.