Lord looks on the heart .” 1 Samuel 16:7b
But what we read and what we can see is only on the surface . God knows the posture of each brother ’ s heart . I don ’ t . And that ’ s the point .
I believe that God ’ s rejection of Cain and his offering had nothing to do with the physical makeup of the offering itself . Nor the outward appearance or lifestyle of Cain as a man . It was to do with the posture of his heart : His heart posture towards his brother Abel and towards God . Hidden in Cain ’ s heart - perhaps hidden even from his own intellect - was bitterness , competitiveness , anger and violence . As a result , even though Cain carried out the correct , external activities of a worshipper , his “ worship ” was not worshipful to God .
I can almost hear Cain saying , “ This rejection from God is not fair ! My worship was at least as good as Abel ’ s . God ’ s got this wrong . I am a better judge of worship than God is !”
What was hidden in Cain ’ s idolatrous heart exploded a little later in murder .
So , what is God saying to me today - and perhaps to you too - through this ?
The story of Cain and Abel is a great reminder that the worship of God is less about what I do - or other people do - as expressions of worship to God . It has more to do with the posture of the heart towards God . Is He the Lord of my heart ? Only God - through the cleansing blood of Jesus the Christ and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit - can make my heart pure . I can ’ t . I easily fall for the trap of forgetting this foundational truth . The things I do that I might think are worship only become worshipful as God reclaims my idolatrous heart .
A lot has changed since the days of Cain and Abel . In these New Covenant times , we tend to choose different expressions of worship than they did . But something that has not changed is God ’ s desire , first and foremost , for us to surrender our hearts to Him .
There is no competition between worshippers of Almighty God . We are not all the same . We may choose to worship God in different ways from each other . But there are no “ worship wars ” between true worshippers .
God is the ultimate judge . I cannot know nor judge the heart of other people by their outward appearances . I am incapable of judging even my own heart ! As a consequence , I cannot and ought not try to measure the “ worshipfulness ” of my own worship , nor the “ worshipfulness ” ( or otherwise ) of other people ’ s worship .
Ultimately , it ’ s only God who can measure the worshipfulness of worship .
Grant Norsworthy Grant is the founder of More Than Music Mentor - providing online & onsite training for the heart & the art of worshipping singers , instrumentalists & technicians . Grant ’ a passion is to IMPROVE musicality , INCREASE participation , INSTILL unity & INSPIRE worship in The Church worldwide . An Aussie who also lived in Nashville , TN , USA for 17 years as a pro CCM muso , today Grant lives and works from his Nelson New Zealand home base .
MoreThanMusicMentor . com Facebook . com / GrantNorsworthy
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