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It all started when…
13 The Lord says:
“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.
14 Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
15 Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us? Who will know?”
16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”? ~isaiah 29:13-16~
found this explanation from ~thebiblesays.com~ that tells it pretty clearly:
the expression honor Me with their lips, means that they speak as if they really loved and honor God. but their love for God is merely lip-service. they do not love God from the heart. their heart and its desires are far from God.
what is lip service: an avowal of advocacy, adherence, or allegiance expressed in words but not backed by deeds
not sure how many of you can relate to this - saying one thing but doing the exact opposite; all talk, no walk; lip service. perhaps sometimes when you did it was unintentional, whereas in these verses it clearly points to knowingly doing so. looking back there were times i only wanted out of my relationship with God was stuff - i want this, i want that, give me this, give me that; if i get this or that from you then i will do such and such; i love you and wish you would let me….. you get it.
verse 15 hits home when i was selling drugs. just put on a straight face, act inconspicuously, don’t cause trouble, keep your mouth shut and no one will know, no one will find out. well, that didn’t work out too well for me because i did get busted. thinking i was too smart, so clever that i could fake everyone out. in a short amount of time i had - people who’ve known me for years were shocked and surprised, but eventually you get found out. remember kids, crime does not pay!
in my arrogance i probably had said, “this is my life, who are you to tell me what to do,” believing i was in control of my destiny and could tell God what i was going to do with it. verse 16 talks about that - basically telling God you know better than He does. pretty stupid, foolish, and definitely an argument i was never going to win.
i feel the application is what you eventually do with yourself, your life - that at one time you were a two-faced impostor, telling everyone around you one thing though not living it out. in these verses, it is about trusting, believing, and loving The Lord, Your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, strength, in action, deeds, and not mere words spoken that come up empty. are you living out what you have come to know to be true or are still living the lie? God already knows us, and what He wants is our heart, committed to Him, reciprocating His love and sharing it with others as a demonstration of that love. there is nothing that we can ever hide from Him, so why start?
dear Heavenly Father, thank you for being a loving father, the only one and true God who gives us second chances when we don’t deserve it. may i not just speak of loving you, may i live it out each day, each moment of my life. pour your Spirit out on me, on us and help us to accomplish that. i praise you Lord for you are so, so good. in Jesus’ name i pray, amen!