Authentic Worship

Authentic Worship

When we approach God, He loves it when our desire for Him is proportional to His desire for us. He wants us to come to Him out of love and joy—with our whole heart.

Likewise, the thing He hates the most—yes, there are things that God hates—is when we just go through the motions, coming to Him without our hearts being involved.

When David finally recognized the full impact of his sin with Bathsheba and his own callousness toward it, he knelt before God and poured out his heart in a prayer of repentance. That prayer is recorded in Psalm 51:

Psalm 51:17

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

What David meant is that God knows our hearts. He knows when we are sincere, and He knows when we are merely going through the motions. Look at this passage in Isaiah 1, where God reveals how He feels about fake worship:

Isaiah 1:12–15

“When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you this trampling of My courts? Bring your worthless offerings no longer… I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts; they have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen.”

God is telling us exactly what He wants: our hearts—true devotion to Him. He wants us to love Him just as He loves us.

Are you giving that to Him? Are you coming before Him humbled, joyous, and ready to put Him first in your life? He is your God, your Creator, your Sustainer, and your Lord. Coming to Him is a joy and a privilege.

As Jesus said in Mark 12:33, the most important thing is to love Him with all our heart, understanding and strength.

God is interested in a relationship with you—but He wants it to be real and genuine. Get started on that today, right now, right here. Give Him your whole heart.