Heartless Gifts!

Opening: 
Imagine it's your spouse's, child's, or even one of your parent's birthday, and you give them a gift. Imagine the gift  is wrapped in old, dirty newspaper and you dropped it a few times while headed to bring it to them, well aware that it is broken. Now imagine giving it to them with a smile and a big hug. Finally, imagine them opening it and their angry response. You are confused because you don't understand what they don't like about it, even though you didn't consider them at all when you purchased, wrapped, and when you dropped it. In addition, maybe you paid the least amount of money for it or even collected it from someone's trash heap after you remembered that it was their special day. This is how we can bring our hearts before God if we are not careful to honor Him as the only true and holy God and worship Him in spirit and in truth. Let's take a look at Isaiah 1:11-17 to get the context. 

Scripture: 
Isaiah 1:11-17 
11. “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

12. “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?

13. Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations--I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
​
14. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.

15. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.

16. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,

17. learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause."

Devotion: 
In the above verses, God is revealing to the people that although He instructed them to continue the sacrifices and celebrations, there is a problem, their hearts. The offerings they are bringing are thoughtless gifts, and their hearts are not for Him any longer. This was due to their sin. 

These scriptures can apply to us today. I asked Chat GPT to generate the image above because I wanted the worse image we could consider. Why? Because I envisioned that's what their hearts looked like to God (the glass represents the divided pieces of their hearts) as they continued bringing the offerings as they had in the past. Meanwhile, they no longer chose God, and He was calling them out on it. 

In our world today, we may often want a soft, gentle word or something that makes us feel good, not a word that confronts us and causes us to take a hard look at ourselves. At our hearts. Sometimes that's exactly what we need, a strong rebuke to get us back on track. This is what God is doing in Isaiah 1. 

Lesson/Takeaway: 
After reading the above verses, I'm reminded that God doesn't leave us in our sinful state. He may send a man or woman of God to reveal His displeasure and give us the opportunity to correct it. 

In our time, this looks like continuing in the tradition of going to church and practicing religious rituals. Meanwhile, we continue to disregard God's instructions in His word and live in sin on our own terms. 

God wants our hearts. That's the gift. He doesn't want the practice of religion when our hearts are far from Him. He wants us to come with our hearts as raggedy as the gift in the image above, but he won't leave us that way. He will restore the gift make what's inside new and beautiful in his sight. As we continue to come to Him for healing, transformation, and restoration, our hearts (the gift) will eventual look like this. See image below. 

​Why is our hearts the gift? Because it is what we bring before God. It is what God sees. Not the gifts He has given us. Not the titles He has given. The heart. The thing He wants to change. Where He wants to dwell. 

I Samuel 16:7 reminds us, "For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 

Therefore, let us bring to God hearts of faith, obedience, love for Him, and trust that He can cleanse anything there that keeps us from pure worship and honor. 

Prayer: 
Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to be corrected by You. That's mercy. We thank you for your love for us and ask that you will help us to recognize those things that may cause our offerings to be vain as stated in Isaiah 1:13. Deliver us from any pride, rebellion, or false worship. Help us to love you with our whole hearts. In Jesus' name, amen. 

If you enjoyed this devotion, check out our Come Bible Study with Me blog page here on the website. We are currently studying the book of Isaiah.

Click the link below to get started:

hope-in-christ.com/come-bible-study-with-me.html



Be Blessed, 
Hope-in-Christ
Denise M. Walker 
Founder