Daily devotion – worship and relationships
Mat 5:24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
When we approach God in worship it is an exercise in giving. It is an amazing thing that our God seeks and values the gifts which we bring Him, of praise, thanksgiving, service and material offerings, which are sanctified by sacrifice.
But our Lord’s words need us to heed His warning in all our giving – that being the gift is acceptable to Him in the measure in which the one who offers is in fellowship with Him in character and conduct; with the test of this is being in our relationship with our fellowmen. Wrong done to a brother, cancels the value of the gift; and we are thus strictly charged to postpone our giving until right relationships are established with one another.
These are searching words and should give us constant pause in our most holy exercise – that of worship.
We are reconciled to God through the prevailing meditation of our one and only High Priest Jesus Christ; but we may not appropriate the privileges of that reconciliation save upon the basis of having right relationships with our fellowmen in any matter in which they have something against us.
May we heed these poignant words from our Lord and not seek to ignore them otherwise all our worship will be to Him barren and futile in our service.
We can only neglect it at our peril. Some may say but what if the other person refuses our offer of forgiveness or reconciliation?
That for them is a matter between the Lord and them.
But for each of us, the next time we come to worship Him who saved us, let us come with cleans hands and clean hearts not holding a grudge or withholding forgiveness to another, less we come with empty hands in the sight of the Lord.
Let us come to Him in full worship, having obeyed His every word and forgive our brother or sister more than seventy times seven.
Remember He forgave us all our sins and He desires us to be like Him in our relationships with one another.
It is then that our worship will indeed be a sweet smelling incense and rise to Him with our praise.