Let Us Flatter God.

I wonder is this a much more fitting opening statement for modern services of worship than the customary "Let us worship God"?  Is our worship, both public and private, rather an exercise in divine flattery than an occasion to lift high from our hearts the ever living God and Saviour?

To worship God acceptably is mandatory for all Christians.  To do it globally is also necessary.  To do it wholeheartedly is essential if it is to be pleasing to the God Who is being worshipped. 

I am exercised about this because of what Jesus said, quoting the OT prophet, Isaiah, who said, "These people worship me with their lips but their hearts are far from Me," (Mt. 15:8; cf Isa.29:13).

In our striving for theological correctness, which usually means mere confessional correctness, we feel we must use the well-trodden words of long ago.  No harm in that, and indeed there is much good in that.  But if our worship is no more than choosing and using the religiously and theologically correct words, where does it differ from what Jesus condemns?  Does this not then degenerate into an exercise in flattery of the Almighty God in a bid to exact some favours from Him? 

Is this what prayer is for - exacting spiritual and/or material blessings from an unwilling God?  Is it a kind of evangelical magic that we're practicing - if we used the right words often enough, God will listen and answer and bless.  But is this worship?  And can it be described as prayer?

The preoccupation of many within the evangelical church with theological correctness has contributed to empty worship and the offering up of "strange fire" to the living God.  It is the worship of the lips while the heart is left untouched by the grace of God.

It reminds me of words put into the mouth of HenryVIII when he desiored to have Anne Bolyn for his wife, while she was interested in another man.  Henry ordered Cardinal Wolsey to "get rid of the other man, but do it legally."  It is possible to do what is considered 'right' in the worship of God but to do it in a way that is unacceptable to Him. 

To say the right things to God without the heart being engaged is a fruitless attempt to flatter Him.  But "Do not be deceived; God is not mocked," (Gal.6:7).  God knows when we are worshipping Him acceptably; He knows when our hearts are engaged in His praise.  For hearts that are not caught up in the loving worship of God are hearts that are trying to flatter Him.  Hearts that are not enlarged when they enter His awesome presence are flattering hearts.

But God sees through it all.  Let us be careful not to fall into the trap of offering God worship with out lips only while our hearts are far from Him.