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Does
this picture look familiar? You're sitting in
church wondering when the preacher is going to
finish. He's saying nice words but they seem to
be meaningless. The music was pretty and everyone
is dressed in their Sunday best, but there's
something missing. At the conclusion of the
service, after several "God bless
you's" and "see you next week's"
you drive away wondering what it's really all
about. It was the same the week before, and the
week before that. It just doesn't seem to have
the impact on your life it once had.
For many, this is a
typical Sunday morning service. The "pizzazz"
is gone. The "wow" of worship
has been replaced by the empty feeling of "ordinary".
Instead of excitedly gathering with folks of like
faith, they go through the routine because it's
what's expected. They know what motions to go
through but what was once real has become rote.
One of God's
complaints against Israel was that she went
through the motions of serving Him but her heart
was not in it. Prompted by the Holy Spirit,
Isaiah wrote, "This people draw near with
their words and honor Me with their lip service,
but they remove their hearts far from Me, and
their reverence for Me consists of tradition
learned by rote." [Isaiah 29:13]
What causes the
real to become rote? Often it is familiarity.
There is an old saying that "familiarity
breeds contempt." I'm not saying that we
despise the house of the Lord, but somewhere
along the line we've become so accustomed to the
the things of God that they don't hold wonder for
us anymore. We still go through the motions but
we've "removed our heart far from
Him."
Is this a problem
in the church today? Probably not in places like
China, Sudan or Iraq where your faith is
constantly challenged for authenticity. But in
America it is so easy to go through the motions
because we don't face those same challenges.
Often what we call persecution is nothing more
than not getting our way. And because it is easy,
it becomes routine.
Is there an answer?
I believe there is! Let's look again to Isaiah: "In
repentance and rest you shall be saved, in
quietness and trust is your strength."
[Isaiah 30:15] The answer is not found in
increased activity or trying harder. We often
look for formulas and more routines to help us
break out of our old routines. That's not the way
of the Kingdom. Do you know how to "be
still and know that He is God?" In the
midst of our routine often the best thing we can
do is to repent and rest in the Lord, quietly
trusting in Him. In stillness the Lord will speak
and bring back the wonder.
Isaiah goes on to
say that "your eyes will behold your
Teacher. And your ears will hear a word behind
you, 'This is the way, walk in it,'"
[Isaiah 30:30-31] When we get in the rut and
routine we need to listen for the voice of the
Teacher. He may just tell us to do something out
of the ordinary, something we wouldn't have heard
Him say if we'd kept on in our everyday way of
doing things. Listen for that voice. Break out of
the rote! Let your faith become real again! Rote
or Real?
I vote for REAL!
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