Focus: Sweeten My Heart (Pt.4)

Text: Isa.43:24

"Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities."

We love it when our children love us right. We love it when they love us so well, when they lavish their love on us, when they treat us with kindness and show us fondness. We love being loved. We love it when we reap the harvest of love. Yes, we love it when we are loved right back! Same goes for God. He doesn't trash returned love or gratitude; he welcomes it. He loves it when His children love Him right back. He loves it when they show gratitude and relate reverently with Him.

God says, "Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money…" He requires and expects that you get Him some sweet cane, whatever it may cost you. Love is costly. Worship is expensive. Service to God involves sacrifice. Doing God's will and pleasing Him doesn't come cheap.

God wants your best - your very best. He can't settle for less. He abhors cheap things - cheap love, cheap worship, convenient obedience, irreverent or inexpensive devotion. David says to Araunah, "I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost" (1Chron.21:24). I love the way it is expressed in 2Samuel, "Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD MY God of that which doth cost me nothing." That was David's spiritual disposition and moral determination as far as his worship of God was concerned. 

You worship God not as you want, but as He wants. 

He knows what is good for Him and what is good for you. He determines how you honor Him and demands nothing short of the best of what you have. He sets the rules and standards of worship. He doesn't seek your opinion; He requires your obedience.

In Malachi's day, He says to Israel, "And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts" (Mal.1:8). Be careful of the way you treat God. How you value God is determined by how you view Him. Mindset is at the heart of spiritual worship.

Judas Iscariot regarded what was done to Christ as a waste. He thought giving to the poor was a loftier idea than giving to Christ. For Judas, lavishing such an expensive oil on Christ was a huge mistake, a great error, and something wasteful. According to John, Judas talked about supporting the poor as if he truly cared about them, but the truth is that caring for the poor was nowhere in his list.

I want you to see how Judas Iscariot negatively influenced and polluted others with his low view of Jesus Christ. He said to everyone present, "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" (Jh.12:5). He got his fellow disciples to buy into his lie. Matthew reports, "But when his DISCIPLES saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?" (Mt.26:8). From his fellow disciples his negative energy spiraled to others. Mark records, "And there were SOME that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?" (Mk.14:4). Judas Iscariot was not ready for costly worship and would castigate and oppose those who would go to any length to giving Christ worthy worship. Be very wary of such people who stand in the way of genuine spiritual and sacrificial worship.

I join the author of Hebrews to ask the Lord God to "make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen" (Heb.13:21). I pray you heed the voice of God saying to you, 'Sweeten my heart.'

by Bishop Moses E. Peter