On Thursday night I was driving to the grocery store close to my house. Across the street from my grocery store there is a Mosque. Now this Mosque is fairly new and so being a church planter I'm always interested to see how full the parking lot of religious institutions may be. It was packed, I mean full and this was at 10pm at night. I have to admit that I was surprised to see it so full.
Now I know a little bit about Islam, and I know that as a Muslim you are supposed to pray 5 times a day. I wondered if this was the final night prayer session or maybe it was a special meeting. Whatever it was, there was certainly good attendance, so I asked myself this question. WHY? I know that if I was to try and do something at LifeChurch on a Thursday night at 10pm I would probably be here by myself. It's make you ask the question do people do religious things out of a sense of Devotion or duty?
Religion is a funny thing, because it is often fueled by duty. We do things like, go to church, give money, even pray out of a sense of duty. We feel that if we don't do these things then we have done something wrong, or we will not EARN our salvation or our ticket into paradise.
It's funny but I don't think that's the highest level of worship, in fact it may be one of the lowest levels of worship. Does God like it when I do something because I have to and not because I want to.
The people in the Old Testament used to do good things because they had to as well. This is what the prophet Isaiah said about that:
Isaiah 64 5-6 "You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. "
Isaiah is saying that unless you are doing your acts of righteousness out of a love and devotion for God they are like filthy rags and have no value to God.
That brings up a lot of questions though. Should I go to church or give to God even when I don't feel like it? Is it based on feelings? Is there a place for duty in our relationship with God?
Well I don't always feel like I love my wife or my kids, sometimes we have conflict (Yes It's true) but yet I know that I love them, and when I serve them it's out of love. So how do we know when it's love and not guilt that spurs us to action?
Maybe there is a place for duty in our relationship, but if there is it must be duty because of devotion.
I'll let you think about that.
Maybe we can learn something about commitment from the Muslim community?
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2 comments:
Wow....You hit is right on Jamie....ding ding ding......That is the qwuestion that i have being struggling with for a long time in my life....I try so hard to do my devotions and sonetimes i do it because I know I have to...sometimes it is a want but sometimes i feel i have to or God won't be happy with me. I don't know what to think about that because God loves us no matter what..I know he wants us to spend time with him but when we are so busy and then at night we are too tired and it goes into the next day?? what to do then...I say i have to do my devos...but am i meaning i have to because God would want me to or am i saying i have to because i will be upset with my self?? I thank you soo much for saying this..because it really has been on my heart lately. WHAT TO DO??
The parking lot was so full because it was the end of Ramadan (sp?). That's a biggy for Islam isn't it? When they fast for ?? days?
Devotion or duty. From a mom's perspective, I love my children. I love them unconditionally. Do I love them less because they don't pick up the doggie do, or haven't mown the lawn for the last 10 days? No, I'm ticked, but I still love them. Does that mean they don't have to do those things? Nope, still need to be done.
When I come home from work and the lawn is mowed, I am really happy. Was it done out of devotion or duty? Good question, probably both. Both is a good thing. I am not happy when I have to nag to get things done and I am happy when they do it without me asking.
Things go a lot more smoothly around here...
Now just apply that on a spiritual level and things might just go a lot more smoothly for you.
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