Worship God with Your Whole Heart

Malachi 1: 6 – 11 (NIV): A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?" says the Lord Almighty. "It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name. "But you ask, 'How have we shown contempt for your name?' "You place defiled food on my altar. "But you ask, 'How have we defiled you?' "By saying that the Lord's table is contemptible. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" says the Lord Almighty. "Now implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?" – says the Lord Almighty. "Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you," says the Lord Almighty, "and I will accept no offering from your hands. My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations," says the Lord Almighty.

This was written about 430 years before Christ to the Jews who were now back in their homeland after their exile in Babylon. By this point, the temple had been rebuilt about a hundred years and, as often happens, the people had become apathetic about their worship. It's a familiar pattern: we beg for God's mercy in a troubling situation, he answers, we worship him whole-heartedly for a while, then, in our comfort we begin to forget about him.

Malachi, then, preaches to remind them to worship God with all their hearts. It is interesting that he is rebuking the priests for their shallow worship in this passage. The religious leaders themselves were not giving God the respect and honor he deserves. They were offering left-over sacrifices. Try cheating on your taxes like you cheat God, Malachi said. See what happens.

God said he would rather us shut the doors of our churches than come and worship him there half-heartedly. God cannot stand half-hearted commitment. If parents are half-hearted, they will inoculate their children from the gospel. Pastors pass their passion for God to their congregation whether they believe it or not. God gave his only Son for us and it disgusts him when we try to give him our left-overs in return. We show the whole world how great our God is by our total devotion to him.

We're awfully busy these days, but God says he wants our best energy, time, commitment and worship. Nothing else is worthy of his great name. Nothing else is pleasing to him. After all, he is God.