He wants my Heart

What makes you angry? People who cut you off in traffic? People who talk on the cell phone in a resturant? Injustices in the world? The neighbor's dog who barks at all hours of the night? Mean people? It could be anything. Have you ever thought about what makes God angry? You could probably come up with a few things. Maybe war, or parents who abuse and neglect their kids, or government officials that commit genocide, or...it could go on and on. In our study of Mark's gospel on Saturday nights, we discovered something that makes God angry. In Mark 3, Jesus, God the Son, got angry at the religious people and their "hard-nosed religion". The religious people of Jesus' day, called the Pharisees, were more interested in religion on the outside than they were about a relationship on the inside. Their hard-nosed religion defined the way they lived. They were into keeping rules and trying to impress God. And all that mattered to them was that everyone else kept the rules too. God was not impressed. He hated what they were doing. Why? Because it wasn't from their heart. In chapter 7, Jesus, speaking about the Pharisees, quoted Isaiah, "These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn't in it. They act like they're worshiping me, but they don't mean it." God wanted their heart. All they gave God was their lip service...and it made Him angry. It's like giving someone a gift...or saying its a gift, but only doing it because you feel you have to. Its not really from the heart. Nobody wants that kind of gift. God only wants our heart. Where do we get off anyway thinking that we can do anything to impress God! We can't, but we can give Him our heart. And that's what He wants the most.
Duane