Take a few deep breaths to center your heart and your mind as you prepare to meet with God.

Meditation on God

God created the heavens and the earth and doesn’t need anything in this world from us, and yet he constantly pursues us. Take a moment and reflect on God’s desire to bring us into His family and into His kingdom. 

Teaching

One day some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating. (The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do not eat until they have poured water over their cupped hands, as required by their ancient traditions. Similarly, they don’t eat anything from the market until they immerse their hands in water. This is but one of many traditions they have clung to—such as their ceremonial washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles.) So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.” Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’ For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.” Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition. For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.” Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.” (Mark 7:1-16)

Here, we see another confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day. On the surface, this confrontation is a conflict between the human traditions of the Jewish leaders, and the commandments of God. Human traditions such as washing of hands, cups, and bowls. These traditions had in some way become more important than the very commands of God upon which they were based. Indeed, Jesus says in verse 8 that the Jewish leaders had abandoned the commandments of God to hold on to their human traditions. However, the deeper conflict and the deeper question is this: where were their hearts? Everyone in their day saw what they looked like on the outside, which may have looked good with their traditions and appearance of godliness, but Jesus asked, “where are your hearts?” 

This question and this challenge is found throughout the Bible and the history of God’s people. Is their obedience to God only external? Is it motivated only by a desire to be approved by other people, or are their actions truly motivated by a love of God? In a prayer given directly by God in Deuteronomy 6 called the Shema, the people prayerfully remind themselves that they are to love God with all their hearts, all their souls, and all their strength. Moses goes on to say that these commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Although he talks about external things after that, such as symbols on their hands and foreheads as well as signs in their houses and on their gates, God begins by commanding them to love the Lord their God in their hearts. My question and God’s question to you is this: “where is your heart?” Are you going through the motions out of a sense of tradition? Are the cups and bowls of your religious life clean on the outside while remaining filthy on the inside? If that’s the case, then we should remember the promise that God has given us: if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. 

Examination

Take a moment and ask yourself these questions: What is your motivation for going to church every week? What is your motivation for doing this devotional today?

Where there are weak or selfish motives, take some time to ask God to clean your heart and your mind, making room for a desire to have a deeper relationship with Him.

Memory Verse

Whether you write it down and put it somewhere you'll see, or you put it into a reminder on your phone, find a way to take James 4:8 with you today.

Come close to God, and He will come close to you. (James 4:8a)