The
wise men did want to worship Jesus (Matthew 2:2). Herod said that he
wanted to worship Jesus (Matthew 2:8). What a difference there is
between saying that we want to worship Jesus and really wanting to
worship Him. This highlights the conflict between false religion and
true worship. Religion may say the right things, but, if we don’t really
mean what we say, our words will not make any difference to the way we
live. This kind of religion is worthless. What does God say to us about
this kind of religion? - “God warned them in a dream not to go back to
Herod” (Matthew 2:12). God is still warning His people to steer clear of
empty religion. When we come to the Lord, we must not come with empty
words - words that we don’t really mean. Our worship is to shape our
life. How is our worship to change our way of living? Real worship
arises out of salvation. This is very different from religion. Religion
says more about ourselves than it says about our Saviour.
Salvation is not about us. It’s about Jesus, our Saviour. When He is the
focus of our attention, we will learn to worship Him and live for Him.
We read about Elijah in his high-points of strength - the triumph over the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:36-39) - and his low-points of weakness - he is ready to give up: “I’ve had enough now, Lord” (1 Kings 19:4). How did Elijah get into such a mess? He forgot this: “The Lord’s power was on Elijah” (1 Kings 18:46). In all life’s ups and downs, we must hold on to this: The Lord has sent His Spirit of power to live in us (2 Timothy 1:7). How are we to live in the power of the Spirit? We need to feed on the Word of God and drink in the Word of God (1 Kings 17:4). We need to pray that the Lord will send His showers of blessing (1 Kings 17:14). We are to live our life “according to the Word of the Lord” (1 Kings 17:16). For our life of faith to be strong in the Lord, we need to listen attentively to the preaching of God’s Word (1 Kings 17:24).
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