Reset your vision!

Captain Kathryn Stowers encourages us to allow God space to speak into our lives and worship.

Key text

• Isaiah 1:10–20

Years ago, in one of my many attempts to lose weight, my slimming consultant had a favourite saying: ‘If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got’. The only way to make a difference to your outcome would be to make a difference to your input.

It seems like common sense when you put it like that. However, when it comes to our spiritual lives the reality of this can be difficult, painful even.

In our study passage, God had tough words to say to Israel about what the outcome would be if they continued to rebel against his covenant. He told them: ‘Stop bringing meaningless offerings’ (v13). Israel had spent many years perfecting the art of ritual. Their religion was more about ritual than worship. It was meaningless because their focus was not on the One who was the only true object of worship.

Pause and reflect

• What rituals are so familiar to us that we don’t think about them at all? 
• Do we understand why we do what we do in worship?

Ritual can be really important. It grounds us and helps us make sense of what we are doing. However, we must be present and aware of what things mean. Worship is far more than just going through the motions and doing things as they have always been done.

For hundreds of years, Israel had gone about their religious rituals of sacrifices and prayers with little or no regard of what God actually required of them. Without the true heart behind the offering and worship, God explained that sacrifices were worthless: ‘I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats … I cannot bear your worthless assemblies … and your appointed festivals’ (vv11–14).

This is a tough message when transferred to our context – the things we do as ritual, going through the motions, without putting our whole heart into them are not what God desires from us.

Furthermore, God didn’t listen to the prayers of those whose hands were ‘full of blood’ (v15). This reminds us of Psalm 24 when, as part of the procession to festivals, the question is asked: ‘Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false God’ (Psalm 24:3 and 4). The concept of clean hands is directly associated with purity of heart.

There is something therapeutic about hand-washing, cleansing away the dirt and grime of work, or sometimes just feeling cleansed and fresh. Isaiah, speaking the Lord’s words, urged Israel to ‘wash and make yourselves clean’ (v16). This is the purity of heart the psalmist talks of: washing away the ritual and getting back to the main thing; repenting of our evil deeds; seeking justice and defending those who have no voice – the oppressed, the fatherless and the widow (see Isaiah 1:17).

Pause and reflect

• What in your rituals might stain your hands? 
• Take a few moments to wash your hands, think about what you are washing away and how refreshing and liberating clean hands feel.

There is hope, however, in obedience to the Lord. If we are willing to follow his rule and reign in our lives, our sins will be washed ‘as white as snow’ (v18) and we will enjoy all the goodness he has to offer.

For a people who were so steeped in ritual of which the Lord despaired, the only way to find his favour was to completely reset. They were to put aside their precious religious practices and focus on obedience and listening to what he asked of them.

For us, there are times when we are caught up in our own rituals that in themselves are not wrong. However, we may have moved our focus off the Lord and on to the rituals themselves. We need to reset, strip back what we are doing and allow God space to speak into our lives and worship. He promises: ‘If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land’ (v19).

The first step of practising obedience is learning to listen. To listen, you must stop and give attention to the speaker. Resetting, then, must start with paying attention to what the Lord is saying. We need to listen intently and, instead of doing things our way, put what he says into practice.

Building this discipline into our personal devotions or corporate worship is challenging and takes an investment of thought and time. When we are serious about resetting and focusing on what is most important, the Holy Spirit will give us patience, stamina and peace, and help us open our hearts to his blessings – the ‘good things of the land’ he desires for us.

When we change the input, the outcome will change. I won’t say how well I was able to achieve this on my weight-loss journey, but it has worked for my journey with the Lord!

Pause and reflect

• What can you change? How can you reset your personal relationship with the Lord? 
• Who might you ask to keep you accountable for your spiritual reset?
• Practise silence. Listen to God. If it makes you uncomfortable, set a timer for 20 seconds and raise it by 10 seconds a day, and journal what you’ve heard God saying through your silence.