Happenings 12/05/22

This morning our ‘Look at the Book’ group did our last session looking at the Psalms – it was a great time! We were looking at Psalm 51, and at one point, our chat moved on to the importance of the outwards expressions of worship being an accurate reflection of the attitude of our hearts. David says at one point, that God does not desire sacrifice, but then only a few verses later speaks about how God will delight in sacrifices. On the surface, this is a contradiction, until you realise that the ‘undesirable sacrifice’ was undesirable because the condition of the worshipper’s heart was not right. By contrast, God delights in sacrifices that are an outward expression of an inward reality. There is a challenge there for us. Are we simply ‘going through the motions’ with God? Do our outward displays of devotion mirror an inward reality of devotion? Something to think about. We then talked about the poor woman who was praised by Jesus for giving the smallest of offerings into the temple treasury. Jesus said of her, ‘This poor widow has put in more than all the others' (Luke 21:3). This story got me thinking … this woman’s inner reality … her ‘heart’, if you will … was full of love for God and trust in God. Yet we never would have known it if she hadn’t embodied it in an outward expression. She would never have become an example Jesus could use if she hadn’t externalized it in a way which was visible. So, perhaps there are two learnings here for us: God doesn’t want an outward display of worship or service for God which does not match our inner reality. But in a sense, he also can’t ‘use’ an inner reality that isn’t expressed in outward behaviour. May we be those who have both a genuine love for our Rescuer and the boldness to show it!