Stress Test Devotional May 4
May 04, 2024
ISAIAH 58:1-6 | 1Shout out; do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they want God on their side. 3 “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why
humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day and oppress all your workers. 4 You fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. 5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day
acceptable to the Lord? 6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
This kind of zeal for the hurting and helpless, the mistreated and exploited, is expressed unforgettably in the great prophet Isaiah. Jesus loved this book and quoted it often. Notice the way Isaiah makes true worship contingent on the extent to which worshippers share God’s righteous passion for those who are treated unjustly. He jolts us awake with His claim and critique: if our lives and hearts don’t reflect God’s passion for justice, then our worship is a useless tragedy. Think of the drama this brings to Sunday morning! Worship puts our lives and integrity in the balance—to rightly honor a God of justice we must be justice seekers, justice lovers, and justice livers. If not, God hears our praise and thanksgiving as an insult, a hypocritical attempt to justify false lives by empty rituals. When we name the name above all names, we must share His true passions.
How do you measure the alignment of your life and your worship?
