The Book of MalachiExemplo

Devotion

Many of us start our faith journey on fire for God – super excited to worship Him. But the buzz wears off. Busyness and distractions lull us into half-hearted devotion. We lose sight of God’s love for us and slip into a lukewarm middle ground – neither blazing hot in our faith nor ice-cold in our denial of God.

It’s this lacklustre commitment that God talks to His people about in Malachi 1:6-2:9. The priests were cutting corners – offering dodgy sacrifices on the altar. This is like how I may or may not scrounge for a can of beans – something I don’t need and won’t miss – when asked to bring something to church to donate to the poor. Except, God wants my wholehearted devotion. He wants me to bring Him my best – not my leftovers. And really, because God has promised to love us fully and freely, the only right response is to give Him everything back in return. That’s what He desires, and that’s what He deserves.

The temptation is to think God doesn’t care what we offer him. We think, ‘That’ll do.’ We convince ourselves He’s thrilled to have us on His team, delighted with whatever gift of time, talent, or treasure we bring. And yet, in doing so, we live with the kind of half-hearted faith Malachi writes about.

In Luke 21, Jesus tells the story of a poor widow who offers God all she has – which isn’t a lot. However, her measly offering pleases God infinitely more than the extravagant gifts of the rich whose comfort isn’t even dented by their ‘sacrifice’. He’s making the point that God is less concerned about your actions, and more concerned about your heart. God despises half-hearted worship. He would rather you were either on fire for Him or far off, not in some blurry middle ground that doesn’t make a difference – neither alive enough to serve Him wholeheartedly, nor dead enough to engage in blatant disobedience. In fact in Malachi 1:10, God says He’d rather the temple doors were slammed shut than His people approached Him with that kind of blasé neutrality.

God takes apathetic worship extremely seriously (Malachi 2:2-3), and so should we. And yet, after issuing a warning to His people, God promises life and peace, calling them to once again stand in awe of Him and to live righteously (Malachi 2:4-6). It’s a beautiful picture of how the solution to half-hearted worship isn’t just to ‘try harder’, but rather to be captivated by God Himself. If you long to be fully devoted to God, fix your gaze on Him: the One who gave up His best to take on your worst. You could read your Bible more, pray more, go to church more – but none of this will result in heartfelt worship if Jesus isn’t at the center of your life. May we be known as a people who see worship not as a burden but rather as an indescribable blessing.