We read that the nation whose God is the Lord is going to experience unprecedented showers of blessings and prosperity. But, so far, it hasn’t happened for us and we’re only left wondering why. How and where did we fail to God’s favor?
Now the majority of Burundians (90% of the population, so they say) are Christians and that means that crowds of people flock into their respective churches on every Sunday on the basis of the belief that Sunday is the Lord’s Day: a day of worship. But there has been too many coincidences of bad events on Sundays that even unbelievers are subconsciously pressing with this question: ‘Is God really that angry with us, Burundians, that he’d allow the unravelling of those catastrophes multiple times on a “Lord’s day”?’
What has our Sunday worship songs done for us lately? We wonder! What good did all the singing and all the prophesying bring to us? And what about and all the dancing for God that goes on throughout the whole land on any typical Sunday? With all these revival meetings and all those crusades going on, we ask: ‘Doesn’t it please God at all?’ And all these disasters happening, on Sundays… for crying out loud!
Not in any way picking up from the Burundian situation, it seems to me that Sunday, no matter which country we’re in, isn’t really God’s favorite day, in fact, I’d assume that God hates Sunday.
God, at times, confronted his people, the Israelites, regarding their worship services and I think that regardless of our location (country), we should all be wise to listen because in my opinion; this applies to every one of us.
He says that ‘his soul hates’ our singing and gatherings, and that ‘they’ve become a burden to him’. He’s just ‘weary of bearing them’. (Isaiah1:14)
Why wouldn’t he delight in our singing? Why wouldn’t he receive our prayers and offerings but instead consider it as ‘abominations’? (Isaiah1:13)
Why isn’t God pleased with our assemblies?
Isn’t it what he has commanded us— that we celebrate the Lord’s Day? But instead we get rejection: “…who has required of you this trampling of my courts?”(Isaiah1:12)
God, as a loving father, loves those who love him, and He loves those who come to him and He heals the brokenhearted. However, we should do well to remember that he isn’t looking for the loud and long prayer performances. God is God. Love and delight in Him on the one hand and fear and reverence on the other hand ought to characterize our attitudes when coming to him. I assure you dear friends, He’s not in for the worship charades and all the trivialities that we’ve prepared on Sundays.
Do our sacrifices mean nothing to him?
Our sacrifices, no matter how costly they were, aren’t what He’s after. The fat rams (or the big tithes), the lavish and empty religious activities are what He despises. He’s the one to give it to us in the first place, for the earth and everything in it is the Lord’s.
He desires the great sacrifices; ourselves. When we come to him, He yearns for our absolute surrender to Him.
Obedience is better than sacrifice! Thus says his Word. The only thing that matter at the end of the day is that we obey him for “rebellion is as the sin of divination” (1samuel15:22).
I think it’s about time that we take away ‘the noise of our songs and the melody of our harps’ (Amos5:23) and come with honest, transparent and humble hearts; hearts broken before the Lord on Sundays… Thirsty hearts for his word saying: ‘Speak O Lord, for your servants hears.’ Hearts willing to trust him and believe and love him wholly during the week. Hearts that are tired of singing words that aren’t true in their everyday life and hearts that are ready to suffer whatever it takes to love and obey him.
I’d clarify that I’m not saying that Burundians are being punished by getting poverty and chaos because of our sins instead of wealth and stability. I believe that God does whatever He wills. He decides to prosper the wicked for a moment while the righteous is crying and none can question him. My aim is for us to put off self-righteousness and hypocrisy and humble ourselves before God, and repent.
I’d like to close this post by reminding you that God abounds with steadfast love and faithfulness. He’s endured you and me! He’s ready to receive your sins, though they’re scarlet and “red as crimson” (Isaiah1:18).
“The Lord, The Lord, a God merciful and gracious…”
Exodus 34:6
Image credit: St Mary & All Saints, Dunsfold, Surrey - Paula Bailey - Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
