These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is based on merely human rules they have been taught. Is 29:13

These were the words of Isaiah that were also quoted by Jesus when he was challenging the Pharisees on being hypocrites. They knew the right things to say and the right things to do; they said them and did them when people were watching, but their hearts were far from God. If we are honest, we are good at this as well. We know how to put our best foot forward, to make ourselves look better than we are, to give the impression we are doing well on all fronts, when back at the ranch, we think to ourselves, “if people only knew what I am really like”.

Our hearts need to be God’s dwelling place. They need to be right before God. They need to be pure. This can only happen when we open them up to God and allow him full access to our lives. There are no restricted areas. Let’s pray the prayer of David in Psalm 51 – “create in me a clean heart O Lord, and renew a right Spirit within me”.

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