Lindy Cofer - I Saw the Lord 3-Day DevotionalSample

EMPTY WORDS

Walk in Love

MATTHEW 6:7-14

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,

Matthew 15:1-9

“Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,”[a6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

DEVOTIONAL:

We see in the book of Matthew, that what we communicate and our overall speech are directly connected to the posture of our hearts. Have you ever felt the pressure to say the right thing or give in to the cultural pressures of this day? Or you felt you needed to perform? This is exactly what Jesus is confronting and leading us out of.

The state of our hearts can be seen through the words we speak. On the other side we can also partake in ‘religious’ rhetoric or “empty words”; when we say all the right things, but our heart is disconnected. Jesus came, laid down His life and sent His Holy Spirit that we could LIVE and be FILLED with His truth and life. Two people can say the same thing and one can be out of the overflow of the heart and one can be out of religious rhetoric, but the difference is the impact and revelation the words carry. Jesus is after our hearts, not our performance or “good works” alone. Paul says in Galatians that if we were saved by the law than Christ died for nothing! Isn’t this so true? The beauty of relationship with Jesus is that we can walk with Him, talk with Him, know His heart and be in relationship with Him. This is the power of the cross. He is a living God. Our living hope. Jesus paid the price for our hearts to be connected with God.

One of the Greek words translated as empty, KENOS, literally means EMPTY. Empty words are those that lack substance, truth and wisdom. They are words not filled with reality or matched with Action. Empty words are words that are for a moment attractive but in no way are proved by deeds.

We’re not satisfied with empty words, we want a real encounter. We are living from a real encounter with Jesus. We won’t settle for a lukewarm faith, we are living for the face to face, we are living from a real encounter. An encounter with Jesus.

YOU CANNOT PERFORM YOUR WAY TO THE LOVE OF GOD.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

Take a moment and go back to the time you first met Jesus. What changed in your heart that tore down 1) the altars of self righteous plans, 2) idols built to fear of man and 3) the lie that we have to “work” your way to Him?

What does the phrase ‘empty words’ mean to you?

Take a moment and ask Jesus to reveal any area in your heart where you may seek to “say” and “do the right thing”, with a disconnected heart. Ask God to protect you from these pressures of culture, fear of man, and performance based Christianity. God is head over His church and he is leading a people connected to His heart. This is your destiny!