"And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’" Mark 7:6-7
You've been to the doctor and heard the dreaded news that you need heart surgery. But you decide that maybe your heart problem could be cured by buying a new set of clothes. You reason that if you looked better on the outside you might be made better on the inside.
While we dismiss this misguided self-diagnosis as a ridiculous solution to a serious problem, it is an apt illustration of an approach to spiritual problems. It's much easier to put on a happy face, try harder not to sin, and clean up our language. Addressing the spiritual heart condition that is the root cause is far more challenging.
As Jesus so sternly stated to the religious leaders, their focus was entirely on the external symptoms rather than the inner cause. Putting on some new external spiritual clothing rather than undergoing spiritual heart surgery was their vain and displeasing exercise in the eyes of God.
It is both risky and uncomfortable, but the challenge before us today is to ask God through Christ to shine His holy spotlight into the depths of our spiritual heart and speak to us about what He see there. As the Psalmist dared ask, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way." Psalm 139:23-24.
In a truth or dare moment, we just might learn an inconvenient truth that can be radically life-changing. This truth that literally cuts to the heart will be with surgical precision designed to heal rather than harm, and will be truly healing if we allow it. Are you up for the dare today?
©Steve Taylor, 2022 --Used by permission
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