Halfhearted

Have you ever sat in your pew (or chair) on Sunday morning while your mind ran hundreds of miles, or millions of thoughts, away? I know I have-- especially as little hands pull at my arms, or little lips try to "whisper" in my ear... Or as the demands of life with the people I love loom larger than they should in my mind. There have been too many days when I sang the familiar songs without thought to the richness of the lyrics, or had to wrestle with my wandering mind to try to focus on the portion of God's Word that was being exposited. I started thinking about this again while listening to a sermon by Ligon Duncan this morning. (You can listen here: My Flesh Trembles for Fear of You)

As I was pondering this, I began to think that halfhearted worship is no worship at all. And this familiar verse came to mind:

 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Deuteronomy 6:5

And when Jesus quoted it in the New Testament:

 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' Mark 12:30

I thought about all the times that my affections are divided between my God and something less. But as I chewed on these verses, I was reminded that all my life should be an act of worship! "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul..." These two terms are pretty similar and refer to the affections and emotions, and the will and personality. "...and with all your mind..." That is, all the intelligence that God has given me. "...and with all your strength." Strength could be physical or emotional or mental, but since it says "all" I would think of it as all three. At this point, I was getting a little down thinking of how far I fall short of God's standard!

But God...

God the Father sent Jesus. Jesus lived a life of PERFECT WHOLEHEARTED WORSHIP every moment He was on this earth, in my place. Then He died for all the moments that I've lived a life of mediocre halfhearted worship... or worse. Jesus Christ became the righteousness of God for me! And because of that my heart cries with the unnamed father in Mark's gospel:

"I believe; help my unbelief!"