There is a group of people who are deceived into thinking that they have relationships with Jesus, but in reality, they have never fully committed their lives to Christ. These are people who know all the right things to say and who are good at following the rules and looking like Christ-followers on the outside, but God does not truly have their hearts.
Throughout Scripture, it is clear that God wants us to follow Him with our entire beings, not just part of us. In other words, He wants our whole hearts. One of the places where we read about this in Scripture is found in the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah 29, God rebuked the people of Jerusalem. Why did he rebuke them? God did not have their hearts. This is what God said about them: “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of Me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote” (verse 13). The people of Jerusalem claimed to serve and honor God and even honored Him with their words. Unfortunately, God did not have their hearts. As a result, they would face the consequences.
Even today, people follow in the footsteps of the people of Jerusalem, as described in Isaiah 29. Still today, they claim to follow God. They say all the right things. Even still, God does not have their hearts. They do not follow "the first and greatest commandment" that Jesus taught in Matthew 22, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind" (verses 37-38). They are holding back from truly following Him. As a result, they will face the consequences. If they do not fully surrender their lives to Him, they will ultimately spend their lives apart from Him.
My friend, God is looking for people who are fully devoted to Him, with their whole hearts. Will you commit to following Him wholeheartedly, withholding nothing, and encourage the people around you to do the same?
Is there someone in your life who needs a reminder that God does not want us to follow Him partway; He wants our whole hearts? Take a few minutes now to pray for them. Pray that God would work and move in their lives so that they fully devote their lives to Him. Commit to having important conversations about faith, the difference Christ has made in your life, and what you are learning in your own relationship with Christ, in an effort to encourage them to grow and take steps to become a fully devoted follower of Christ.
1“What sorrow awaits Ariel, the City of David.
Year after year you celebrate your feasts.
2 Yet I will bring disaster upon you,
and there will be much weeping and sorrow.
For Jerusalem will become what her name Ariel means—
an altar covered with blood.
3 I will be your enemy,
surrounding Jerusalem and attacking its walls.
I will build siege towers
and destroy it.
4 Then deep from the earth you will speak;
from low in the dust your words will come.
Your voice will whisper from the ground
like a ghost conjured up from the grave.
5 “But suddenly, your ruthless enemies will be crushed
like the finest of dust.
Your many attackers will be driven away
like chaff before the wind.
Suddenly, in an instant,
6 I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, will act for you
with thunder and earthquake and great noise,
with whirlwind and storm and consuming fire.
7 All the nations fighting against Jerusalem
will vanish like a dream!
Those who are attacking her walls
will vanish like a vision in the night.
8 A hungry person dreams of eating
but wakes up still hungry.
A thirsty person dreams of drinking
but is still faint from thirst when morning comes.
So it will be with your enemies,
with those who attack Mount Zion.”
9 Are you amazed and incredulous?
Don’t you believe it?
Then go ahead and be blind.
You are stupid, but not from wine!
You stagger, but not from liquor!
10 For the Lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep.
He has closed the eyes of your prophets and visionaries.
11 All the future events in this vision are like a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, “We can’t read it because it is sealed.” 12 When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, “We don’t know how to read.”
13 And so the Lord says,
“These people say they are mine.
They honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
And their worship of me
is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.
14 Because of this, I will once again astound these hypocrites
with amazing wonders.
The wisdom of the wise will pass away,
and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear.”
15 What sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their evil deeds in the dark!
“The Lord can’t see us,” they say.
“He doesn’t know what’s going on!”
16 How foolish can you be?
He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay!
Should the created thing say of the one who made it,
“He didn’t make me”?
Does a jar ever say,
“The potter who made me is stupid”?
17 Soon—and it will not be very long—
the forests of Lebanon will become a fertile field,
and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops.
18 In that day the deaf will hear words read from a book,
and the blind will see through the gloom and darkness.
19 The humble will be filled with fresh joy from the Lord.
The poor will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 The scoffer will be gone,
the arrogant will disappear,
and those who plot evil will be killed.
21 Those who convict the innocent
by their false testimony will disappear.
A similar fate awaits those who use trickery to pervert justice
and who tell lies to destroy the innocent.
22 That is why the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, says to the people of Israel,
“My people will no longer be ashamed
or turn pale with fear.
23 For when they see their many children
and all the blessings I have given them,
they will recognize the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob.
They will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 Then the wayward will gain understanding,
and complainers will accept instruction.
